


For The Hell Of It

by heytheregisela



Category: Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter RPF
Genre: High School AU, M/M, Mavin, RageHappy, jocks au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-01-25
Updated: 2016-01-05
Packaged: 2018-03-08 23:24:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 31,983
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3227396
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/heytheregisela/pseuds/heytheregisela
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ever since Gavin Free moved to Austin, he and Michael Jones have always had a sort of competitiveness between them. When Gavin decides to try out for the Soccer team in the Spring, Michael realizes that playing a sport can’t be <i>too</i> bad. While Gavin finds himself a spot on the team, Michael ends up making the football team. It’s all fun and games until their feelings start getting in the way.</p><p>Playlist can be found <a href="http://8tracks.com/heytheregisela/for-the-hell-of-it-1">here.</a></p>
            </blockquote>





	1. One

**Author's Note:**

> I asked and you voted and finally, here it is! The Jocks AU. Enjoy the first chapter of this new adventure. Also, shout out to Aj (imagine-enderdragons on tumblr) for the title!! I was going to make them both on the football team, but then there was discussions about them going to each other’s games so… and with the playlist, since 8tracks has to make you put 8 tracks (lol no shit) to make the playlist publish, I did add in 8 songs from the playlist, but I shall let you all know which songs go with each chapter just as I always do. And then more songs will be added later. 
> 
> For this chapter, the only songs are "It's Time" by Imagine Dragons and "Wild Ones" by Jessarae.

Gavin wasn't sure what to expect when a guy who was supposedly his age with tired eyes, walked up to him in the office. Was he a student here? He did somewhat look like he could be one, but he also looked like a college student. This wasn't college...

The lady he was just speaking to smiled at him and gestured towards the young man. “This is Geoff Ramsey; he'll be the one to show you around the school,” she explained. “He's only a year older, so he knows the school pretty well.”

Gavin turned towards Geoff and held out his hand. “Nice to meet you.”

Geoff shook his hand, a little roughly, and grinned. “Yeah... uh, Gavin, right?” Gavin nodded. “Alright, yeah, let's get this started before I regret being nice and volunteering to do this in the first place.”

“Except you didn't volunteer, Mr. Ramsey!” The woman shouted to him as they walked away, and Geoff merely waved her off. Gavin couldn't help but laugh a little.

“So, why did you move here of all places in this country?” Geoff asked him once they were out in the mildly crowded hallway. “Austin is fucking great, but... why?”

“Uh, my dad actually knows someone who lives here, someone who's actually a teacher at this school, and that teacher helped my dad find a job in his field,” Gavin answered as he tried avoiding brushing shoulders with anyone.

“Oh, shit. What teacher?”

“Mr. Burns.”

“I was going to say if it's one of those hard ass teachers, you could probably get away with doing anything, but Burns is already cool. The only teacher I'd be friends with.”

Gavin nodded. “Yeah, I've only met him once, but he seemed very laid back.”

Geoff patted his back and looked over to find one of his friends standing nearby the water fountain, so without telling Gavin anything, he started walking towards them and Gavin just followed.

“Look at this fucking loner, Gavin,” Geoff joked as he nodded towards Michael Jones, who had, apparently, been too occupied with messing with his beanie until he heard Geoff's voice. Gavin was going to laugh, but then he saw the snarl on this _loner_ 's face.

Michael looked as though he was ready to tell a really witty remark to Geoff, but then he noticed the stranger standing next to him, and he couldn't help but to turn all his attention on him instead. “Who's this?” He asked Geoff as he kept his eyes on Gavin.

“I'm Gavin Free,” Gavin greeted himself, extending his hand for Michael to shake.

Michael raised an eyebrow as he looked down at the hand, but then he smiled, causing all intimidation he _just_ had to disappear, and he shook Gavin's hand. “I'm Michael.”

Gavin returned the smile and turned to Geoff as Geoff gestured down the hall.

“We should get going before our first class starts,” Geoff told him. “So far the only thing I've shown him is how to exit the main office.”

Gavin nodded. “Right. You're doing _great_ at this.”

“Oh, shut up.”

Michael snickered at the two. After saying their goodbyes, Michael headed off in the direction of his first class, meeting up with another best friend of his, Ray Narvaez Jr., on his way there, and surprisingly, they ended up being one of the first people inside of the classroom. As they took their seats and began asking each other for answers to questions they didn't finish on their homework, the bell rang and little by little, everyone else entered.

“Okay, and what about number fourteen?” Ray asked Michael in a hushed tone.

Michael groaned and moved his paper closer to the edge for Ray to see. Ray peeked over and quickly scribbled down the answer on his own worksheet before nodding and sitting back into his seat comfortably before their teacher could say anything to them about cheating.

“Good morning, everyone,” Mr. Sorola greeted them, putting his things down on his desk before walking to stand right in front. “So, I'm hoping you all finished the homework _without_ the _help_ of your friends,” his eyes shifted over towards Michael and Ray. Ray gaped at him, but Michael simply pretended he didn't notice.

Mr. Sorola sighed and shook his head. “Pass it up to the front, everyone.”

The classroom was filled with sounds of ruffling papers within seconds and as Michael grabbed the papers being passed up from behind him, he glared at Ray. Ray squeezed his eyebrows together and looked back at him.

“What?” He asked.

“Way to go on playing it cool, Ray,” Michael mumbled in response.

“I panicked, okay? He was looking _right_ at us.”

“Because he knows we've done that before, but he didn’t know we did that today, you fucking-” Michael was cut off by the door opening, distracting him from what he was going to say. He looked forwards to find Gavin (It was Gavin, wasn't it?) walking into the classroom, followed by Geoff. Michael and Ray tilted their heads at the sight.

Mr. Sorola turned around and listened to Geoff explain to him about how Gavin was a new student and after all of that was established, Geoff smiled at Gavin and walked out of there.

“Geoff already has the new kid under his wing?” Ray asked, shaking his head. “You know that just means trouble. I mean, Geoff took us under his wing in middle school when we both happened to be the new kids and well, look at us now.” Michael smiled at him before turning his attention back to Gavin.

“Class, this is Gavin Free, and don't mess with him, because I don't feel like dealing with that sort of stuff today,” Mr. Sorola told the class, sounding completely irritated, and it got a few to laugh.

Gavin ended up getting seated in the front, right where Michael could perfectly stare at him, and Michael did for a while, with squinted eyes. The only thing that got him to look away was Mr. Sorola starting the lecture. Ray had noticed Michael staring the entire thing, but he decided to keep quiet about it until after class, although it was weird enough to make him shoot Michael a questioning look, but Michael didn't catch it.

As soon as that class ended, everyone jumped up from their seats, making their chairs squeak against a floor a little, and they all tried to be the first ones out. Gavin managed to squeeze his way through and was pleasantly surprised to find Geoff already waiting for him outside.

“Where in bloody hell is your class?” He asked.

“It's just down the hall,” Geoff answered, pointing towards it, “I got history with a teacher that lets out a little early everyday. Let's just keep this little tour going.” Despite the fact that it was a bit evident that Geoff didn't want to do this, Gavin liked him.

Michael and Ray finally walked out of class together, spotting the other two as they headed off, and again, Michael was staring with that suspicious sort of look on his face and Ray couldn't take it anymore.

“Why do you keep staring at him?” He questioned, but then he smirked. “Somebody got a crush on the new guy?” And he waggled his eyebrows.

Michael rolled his eyes and shook his head. “Do you ever just get this weird vibe about someone?”

“Oh, man,” Ray sighed. “Don't tell me you suspect he's some sort of serial killer or something...” He paused when he didn't see a look that denied that upon Michael's features. “Wow, _do_ you... suspect that?”

“Of all the things, Ray,” Michael almost shouted, though he wasn't surprised. “No, he just...” He shrugged. “I guess I can't explain it since I don't know him that well.”

“He seems alright, but I haven't talked to him, so I can't say shit either.”

“Yeah.” And that was the end of that topic as they moved on to go to their next class together. Michael knew he couldn't just judge someone over the fact that there was a weird feeling he sensed with them, and that honestly didn't make them a bad a person, so he shook those thoughts away and didn't think about Gavin Free for the rest of the morning. He didn't see him or Geoff, either, not until lunch came around.

Michael had the class before lunch without any of his friends, so he walked to the cafeteria alone and after grabbing his tray of severely disappointing food, he met up with Ray and their other friend Miles Luna. The two were indulged in conversation about the Algebra homework they were stuck on when Michael sat down.

“Hey assholes,” Michael greeted, smiling at them.

“Hey, Michael. Math sucks,” Miles stated, folding his arms over his chest and pouting.

Michael let out a soft laugh. “I agree, Miles. It's all bullshit.”

“It's all lies,” Ray added.

“It's all the headaches I get on Sunday nights,” Miles whined.

“That's because you procrastinate so much that you end up having to do _everything_ on Sunday night, including the math homework,” Michael told him.

“It's not even Sunday night; it's more like Monday morning at one AM,” Ray said.

Miles shook his head. “I get busy during the weekend, okay?” He looked down at his tray and frowned as he picked up one of his chicken nuggets. “I have a life.”

“Is Miles pretending like he's too cool for anything again?” Geoff asked as he approached the table.

Michael grinned as he looked up at him, but that grin faltered, because Geoff wasn't actually alone. Gavin was standing behind him.

“Pretending?” Miles squeaked. “Who's _pretending_? Not me!”

“Remind me why I'm friends with freshmen again,” Geoff said as he rolled his eyes, but then he looked at Gavin and whispered, “No offense.”

Michael leaned closer to Ray and whispered, “He's like a lost little puppy whose claimed Geoff as his parent,” and that caused Ray to spit out his water and start coughing out of control. Michael bit down on his lower lip, holding back his laugh, as he helped him by patting his back.

Gavin turned to Ray with a concerned look. “You alright there, mate?”

Ray nodded, clearing his throat and coughing one more time. “I'm... awesome,” though he smirked at Michael and Michael returned it. Geoff saw that exchanged and wanted to question it, but he merely shrugged and led Gavin over to the empty spots next to Miles.

“Geoff, you passed Algebra last year, right?” Miles asked him once they were both seated.

“Yes, and sure I'll help you with your problems,” Geoff answered before Miles could even move on to the second part of his question, “Just come over at my place on Saturday – anytime after noon.”

Miles raised his eyebrows and looked forward. “Alright... well that was easy,” he mumbled the last words.

“You were asking _me_ , Miles, not Michael.”

Michael blinked and perked up at that. “What the fuck is that supposed to mean?” He didn't even hold back the bitter tone.

Geoff threw his hands up. “Exactly!” And everyone laughed, except for Michael. Michael narrowed his eyes at Geoff and began eating silently.

“You have a pretty top group of friends here,” Gavin spoke, mostly to Geoff, but he looked around at the others with a crooked smile. Michael raised an eyebrow at him.

“They're okay,” Geoff replied, winking over at Ray who was staring at him, though none of them saw how Michael was watching Gavin with a quizzical expression.

“So, Gavin, what other classes do you have?” Michael asked him, but the others paid that beginning conversation no attention as they ate.

“Um...” Gavin looked down and pulled out a folded piece of paper from his pocket. He checked it over before answering, “I have an art class right after lunch and then I end my day with PE.”

“PE with who?”

“Stevenson?”

Michael cursed under his breath, but Gavin didn't seem to think anything of it. Michael then just licked his lips and said, “That's my teacher.”

Ray threw his arm around Michael's neck and pulled him a little closer, “Well, won't that be fun?” There was such sarcasm in that question that Michael was tempted to push him away, but he didn't. Instead, Michael forced a smile on his face as he looked at Gavin again.

“It'll be _very_ fun,” Gavin told them and Michael couldn't figure out what the hell he meant by that, which was new, because he was usually good with reading people and their true intentions, but not this time. He broke eye contact with Gavin to finish eating his food instead, and Gavin did the same while Geoff and Miles remained oblivious to everything.

 

* * *

 

During PE, Gavin was noticeably the last one to walk out of the locker rooms, but Michael couldn't really blame him. As the class began to stretch while their teacher spoke to another faculty member, Michael made his way over to Gavin who was currently watching everyone else do their stretches instead of doing them himself.

“It's too bad you have to start your first day in PE running the dreaded mile,” Michael told him, and then he fanned himself a little. “Especially with this fucking heat.”

Gavin turned to him and shrugged. “Nah, can't be too bad. Uh, what's your best time?”

“Around ten-fifty,” the smugness that laced Michael's voice with that answer almost made Gavin want to smile.

“I could probably beat that,” he said, casually, as he looked away and attempted to do what the girl standing nearby was doing with her legs.

Michael furrowed his eyebrows as he stared at Gavin for a moment, wondering what to say next. “Oh, really?” He asked. “Because like... I've been practicing on my own time, you know?” Gavin looked at him at that and Michael nodded as he continued on, “I run around my neighborhood in the mornings to get me up and ready for the... uh, the day, and whatever.”

The corners of Gavin's lips rose slightly. “Well, that's nice, Michael. You'll probably have a lot of improvement to show today then.”

“Fuck yeah! I'll probably get,” Michael shrugged as he thought about it, “fucking, maybe seven minutes.”

“A seven minute mile,” Gavin considered, pursing his lips, and then he finally nodded. “Not bad.”

Michael rolled his eyes and opened his mouth to say more on the subject when the sound of their teacher blowing the whistle startled him. He quickly turned away from Gavin to give their teacher his full attention, so he didn't catch the grin that slowly made its way on Gavin's face.  

“Alright, remember the rules: no cutting through the field, no pushing or tripping anyone, _and_ no trying to lie about the time you get,” Coach Stevenson explained as he walked by everyone. “Got it?”

“Yes, sir!” Everyone replied.

Michael was actually attempting to stretch, because with the miles, well, he usually walked most of it, because he didn't care about what time he got, but this was going to be different. He wasn't about to let this British prick get better than him.

Coach Stevenson had them all get into their positions, and as expected, Gavin stood next to Michael. Michael ignored him, though, and kept his concentration on the track in front of him. The second the whistle was blown, they all took off, and Michael could already tell that he was really running way faster than he could probably handle, but seeing that Gavin was _right_ next to him, he wasn't going to slow down.

_Just breathe and keep going_ , Michael thought to himself,  _he'll eventually get tired and stop running._ Or at least, that's what Michael had hoped. They were reaching the middle of the track and the two were still side by side, sadly. Michael tried ignoring the way his chest was feeling heavy and how his forehead was getting sweaty. 

“You're... pretty fast, I... have to admit,” he heard Gavin pant out next to him.

Michael groaned and squinted his eyes, not bothering to look at him. “I can go faster,” he breathed out.

“Don't hurt yourself,” Gavin told him, sounding like he was truly concerned, but Michael highly doubted that. That was probably a trick to make him stop for a break, but it wasn't going to work.

Michael inhaled sharply before glancing at Gavin to wink at him and taking off faster. Gavin almost halted in his tracks to stare in awe, but he shook his head and smirked before picking up his speed as well, despite his legs wanting to protest.

Michael didn't even hear his own feet touching the ground anymore, or anyone else's, but he could _clearly_ hear the way his heart was pounding. All he wanted was to fall over and lie on the ground until he regained his entire energy. He wanted water to be poured down his throat and over his face, because his skin was burning. He hadn't even noticed Gavin managed to catch up until they were both skidding to a stop at the end where their teacher was recording their times.

“Jones and Free – eight minutes and forty seven seconds,” Coach Stevenson told them, and then moved on to the next student.

Michael wanted to scream at Gavin for getting the same as him, but he couldn't even talk. His chest felt like there weights on it, pulling him down. So, he hunched over, trying desperately to catch his breath, but maybe it was the heat that was making it worse.

“Well... it's... it's no... seven minutes... but it's good...” Gavin said next to him. Michael looked up at him to find that his face was as red as his felt. “Oh, bloody hell,” Gavin closed his eyes for a moment and clutched his chest, but when he reopened his eyes, he was smiling down at Michael. “Good job, Michael.” And as he walked off, acting as though nothing had happened, Michael rolled his eyes, yet he still couldn't find it within him to say anything.

He stood back up and swallowed hard, because he could sworn the world spun for a second. There were still others finishing up their miles, and he wished he would have just taken it easy, because he barely made it to the trashcan on time from having to drag his feet towards it.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This will be updated every Saturday, unless I can get a chapter done early.


	2. Two

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you guys haven't read "The Outsiders" then maybe beware towards the end of this chapter, because there's some spoilers lol but idk, I feel like it's the thing everyone knows about whether they've read it or not. Anyway, enjoy! And I definitely do think I'm going to keep this whole Saturday thing, because it gives me time to work on it while also working on homework and studying. So, new chapter next week!!

“The asshole was purposely trying to run faster than me,” Michael went on, his words practically spitting out of him. Ever since he and Ray left the school grounds, he hadn't been able to stop talking about what had occurred during PE. There had been a small pause that led Ray to think Michael had gotten it all out and was okay about it, but apparently not.

“Why would he do that, though? To show you up?” Ray asked, chuckling under his breath. That may have been his attempt at lightening up the mood, but Michael didn't laugh. In fact, Michael halted in his tracks as realization dawned on him.

“Yes! That's _exactly_ what he's doing!” He shouted out like he had just discovered the answer to a problem he'd been stuck on for weeks.

Ray furrowed his eyebrows and also stopped walking to look at Michael. “Are you serious?” All humor now gone from his tone.

“As serious as I'll ever be!”

“Well now I _have_ to believe you.”

Michael narrowed his eyes at him, enough to make Ray have to purse his lips and hold in his laughter. The two started walking again, silence filling the air and Ray thought that once again, Michael was done with his Gavin rant. He took a deep breath and thought about the few things he had wanted to originally discuss with Michael on their walk home, but now he could barely remember what the hell those things were. They weren't about video games or about school... or about anything that went on at home, because if he was being honest, the most exciting thing that happened at him at home was when he beat a level he had the most trouble with. His parents were a bit dull, so there was definitely nothing about them he wanted to talk to Michael about. Maybe it was-

“I'll admit, he's not that bad of a guy,” Michael was speaking once more, and Ray sighed, though he did

listen, “But he just really annoyed me in PE and god damn, I can't get the fuck over it.”

“Well, if he continues to bug you, just tell me, and I'll handle it for you,” Ray patted Michael's back.

Michael raised an eyebrow questioningly at him and shook his head. “I'll take my chances.”

Ray shrugged, but he couldn't disagree. Gavin was also pretty lanky, maybe more than him, but Ray didn't want to get into any kind of mess with him anyway. He and Michael came to another halt at a crosswalk where they both turned to each other.

“Alright, well, this is where we part ways, so I'll see you tomorrow,” Ray told him, and he made a mental note to try to recall whatever it was that he had wanted to tell Michael.

Michael smiled at Ray as he watched him walk off before heading towards his own house as well. It wasn't too long of a walk from there, so he decided on reviewing his own agenda for the night in his mind to try and motivate himself to finish his homework instead of doing something else first when he got home.

“Michael!”

Michael blinked, almost stopping to see if he would hear that again, but he just kept on going. And then there it was again... “Michael!” in such an unforgettable accent that Michael actually felt the annoyance rise within him so fast.

“Oh... fuck me...” he rolled his eyes as he turned around and saw Gavin hurrying to catch up with him. “Hey, Gavin,” he said, blandly. “You live around here?”

“Yeah!” Gavin nodded once he was right next to him. “My house is down the street. We can walk together, yeah?”

Michael sputtered, hesitant on what to actually say. What he said to Ray was true; Gavin wasn't that bad of a guy, so this wouldn't be bad, right? “Uh, well, only because I have to go that way already.”

“Aw, Michael,” Gavin pouted a bit.

“Don't give me that face.”

Gavin's pout immediately faded and a look of absolute confusion replaced it. He tilted his head slightly to the side as an eyebrow shot up, but Michael looked away and walked on. With Michael's back turned to him, Gavin smiled to himself and quickened his steps to stay side-by-side with him.

“You're really something, Michael,” he said softly.

Michael scoffed. “Something good?” He was grinning until he really realized what he had asked, and to _who_ he had asked it to. This wasn't Ray. This wasn't Geoff, or Miles. Holy crap.

The grin was wiped off his face and he put on a stern expression, not daring to make any eye contact with Gavin.

Gavin noticed all of those changes on Michael's face and was fighting back the urge to smile or laugh about it, and finding himself successful with that, he nodded. “Yeah, sure,” he replied. Michael let that be the end of it. He wasn't even going to bother trying to defend himself by jokingly asking, “What do you mean by _sure_?” because again, this wasn't Ray, Miles _or_ Geoff.

They didn't say another thing, not a single word, to each other, leaving their footsteps on the cement to be the only sounds. That and the occasional car that would drive by or a dog hanging out on the lawn that would jump and start barking at their presence. Other than those things, though, it was quiet – too quiet. Admittedly, Michael was getting uncomfortable and was going to start a second conversation, or some sort of small talk, for the sake of breaking this dreadful and awkward silence, but then Gavin halted in his tracks. Michael did as well and looked towards the house they stopped in front of.

“Guessing you live here?” He asked and Gavin's one nod confirmed that.

“Thanks for walking me,” there was such a smug smile on Gavin's face as he spoke; it was a bit irritating. Why was everything about him so irritating?

“I didn't... well, not really, but okay,” Michael told him.

Gavin just snickered and started to walk up towards the front door, but as Michael took a step away, Gavin called out to him.

“Michael?”

Michael was going to keep walking, he actually was, but he wasn't an asshole, so he looked at him again and waited.

Gavin kept that annoying smile on his face as he said, “Since we now know we're _kind_ _of_ neighbors, maybe we can run together sometime in the morning.” Michael's eyes widened, although he didn't get to say anything since Gavin continued talking, “We can set goals for ourselves and everything. Maybe one of us will be able to get that seven minute mile down in a month or less.”

Michael knew he was gaping at Gavin, but he couldn't find words to speak, and then Gavin merely nodded at him before turning and opening the front door. Michael stood still in place, watching as Gavin walked into the house and closed the door behind him, and after Michael knew he was alone, he closed his eyes and groaned.

There was no way he was going to start getting up before six AM just to run with the new kid. He was pretty sure Gavin wasn't being completely serious about it, but if that offer came up again, Michael would be ready with a string of excuses.

 

* * *

 

Mr. Sorola had a tendency of going on and on about how teaching English was the _last_ thing he wanted to teach, but in the end, it just sort of happened. And because of that, he was determined to be a memorable teacher. He didn't care about being the best or the worst, well, he did want to teach his students everything they needed to know, but what was most important to him was being remembered, and the first step in being remembered was having long discussions with his students a few times a week that would either end horribly or surprisingly good.

“How many of you regularly read?” He asked. Half of the class rose their hands while the rest looked around. “I expected as much. Uh...” Mr. Sorola squinted his eyes as he tried to find a student to call on. When his eyes landed on Michael, he smiled. “Michael.”

Michael stopped coloring in the random little shape he doodled on his notes and looked up with a raised eyebrow. “Huh?”

Mr. Sorola's smile faltered. “Were you listening to me at all?”

A few classmates giggled and Michael shifted in his seat, clearing his throat.

“Something about reading,” he mumbled.

“Correct. So, what was the last book _you_ read?”

Amused, Ray turned his head to face Michael. Michael wanted to raise his middle finger at him, because he knew exactly what Ray was thinking, but since he was in class, he resisted that urge. Michael scratched his head as he thought back to the last time, and then he gasped and snapped his fingers excitedly when it came to him.

“The Outsiders, last year in my English class.”

Mr. Sorola's smile slowly returned. “That's a good one. What was your favorite part?”

Ray let out a noise that sounded like a mix between a cough and a snort, and that urge to flip the bird at him was growing on Michael again. Michael merely sighed deeply and shrugged.

“To be honest, Mr. Sorola, I don't even remember,” he said.

“You know what? Fair enough,” Mr. Sorola told him, much to his surprise. “Anyone want to volunteer and tell me what the last book they read was and their favorite part?”

Michael crossed his arms and looked at Ray. “Why couldn't he just go with volunteers in the first place instead of picking on me?” He asked in a hushed tone.

“Because you weren't paying attention,” Ray whispered back. “And also, why the hell would you say The Outsiders when you didn't even _read_ it? You used Geoff's knowledge of the book to get you through those weeks.”

“Shut up.”

“ _Anyone_?” Mr. Sorola tried again, his eyebrows raising as he looked around the room.

Gavin glanced back at Michael and Ray who were still whispering to each other, and he smiled before looking at Mr. Sorola and raising his hand.

“Oh, alright... uh...” Mr. Sorola trailed off as he tried recalling the new student's name.

“Gavin,” the Brit finished for him. Michael and Ray abruptly stopped whispering and turned their attentions on him.

“Gavin,” Mr. Sorola nodded. “I have so many students throughout the day that it can be hard to remember sometimes, but go ahead, Gavin. Talk to us.”

“Well, the last book I read was actually The Outsiders as well, but it wasn't for class; it was just a book I decided to pick up over the summer while I was bored at home.”

Michael could only see the side of Gavin's face, but that was enough to see the corners of his lips up high and proud, and Michael curled his fingers as he glared. Ray let out that noise again. He covered his mouth this time, though, because he was about to lose control of his own laughter.

“What was your favorite part, then?” Mr. Sorola asked Gavin.

“Oh, well, if I had to pick just _one,_ I definitely have to go with...” Gavin paused and put his hands up, “ _spoilers_ for anyone who hasn't already read, but... Johnny's death scene.”

Michael's expression softened as he looked at Ray. “Johnny dies?”

“Did Geoff skip that part with you?” Ray questioned quietly.

“I don't remember, but why does he die? Was it because of the fire? There was a fire, right?”

“I'm sorry, Gavin,” Mr. Sorola intervened before Gavin could go on, and Gavin kept his mouth closed. Mr. Sorola turned his head to face Ray and Michael to say, “Hey, you two,” and his voice was stern.

Ray jumped in his seat and quickly looked forward while Michael just frowned.

“Did you guys forget one of my classroom rules?”

“No talking when another student is talking,” Ray responded, sounding apologetic yet confident in what he was saying.

“Yeah. Maybe you should remind Michael about that a few times.”

“No, I got it,” Michael said softly, looking down at his desk.

“Good,” Mr. Sorola looked back at Gavin and nodded at him. “Sorry about that. Go on.”

Gavin grinned. “It's fine, but as I was saying... Johnny's death scene was very memorable, and not only because he died, but because that moment between him and Ponyboy was actually _very_ heartfelt.” He paused to recollect his thoughts and in that time Michael raised his hand, practically standing up to get their teacher's attention. He certainly got most of his classmates' attentions, including Ray who just stared at him with furrowed eyebrows.

Michael noticed and whispered to him, “I remember now a little bit more of what Geoff told me about this part.”

“Yes, Michael?” Mr. Sorola asked, exasperated.

Michael sat completely back down and smiled. “And the greatest part of that moment is how like... uh, Johnny says to Ponyboy about how he should stay gold and stuff, and that... that's _the_ quote. _The_ quote everyone knows. It's what basically completes the story.”

“Oh my god,” Ray said under his breath as he covered his eyes with his hand.

Mr. Sorola smiled slightly and he couldn't help but continue this. “And _why_ do you think that?”

Michael opened his mouth, but he was at a blank again. He did recall Geoff talking about that particular deep conversation between Johnny and Ponyboy, and he just _had_ to say what he said.

“Because it's part of the poem, obviously,” Gavin was speaking now and Michael closed his mouth as he listened, although he felt like doing more than that, “'Nothing Gold Can Stay' by Robert Frost, which is the one Ponyboy recites to Johnny during their hideout at the church.”

 _God damnit. How do you even remember all of that?_ Michael wondered, though he shook his head and attempted to do some more remembering of his own – everything Geoff told him about the book.

“And that poem is the reason Johnny tells Ponyboy to 'stay gold', correct?” Mr. Sorola asked.

“Yes, sir,” Gavin answered.

“So, what did Johnny exactly mean by that?”

Gavin pursed his lips as he looked for the right words to say. Michael swallowed hard as he raised his hand again, because Geoff's words were coming back to him, but he was a little unsure. Mr. Sorola gestured towards him and Michael took a deep breath.

“Uh, he... he meant that, uh, that Ponyboy should, um.. you know, stay true to himself and... stuff,” Michael got progessively quieter and quieter as he spoke, but everyone managed to hear everything he had said anyway.

“Yeah,” Gavin agreed. “Because the poem means that nothing good stays, so Johnny is telling Ponyboy to keep the good within him – his youth and innocence.” He then turned his body to be able to face Michael better. “ _Right_ , Michael?”

Ray looked back and forth between the two, seeing the challenging expression on Gavin's face and the look that could murder on Michael's, but that murderous look faded quickly and a forced smile took its place.

“Right,” Michael said.

That was how Ray ended up walking out of that classroom laughing after the bell had rung. Michael was walking with him, but he was ready to leave him, although, before he could even make that decision, he felt a hand on his shoulder. Ray stopped laughing as he and Michael turned around and came face-to-face with Gavin.

“That was fun,” Gavin simply said.

“Yeah, I had a real fucking blast,” Michael grumbled.

“Come on, Michael. No hard feelings?” When there was no response from Michael except for a rise of eyebrows, Gavin sighed. “Okay, you and I just aren't getting on the right track, are we?” He asked. Michael groaned and narrowed his eyes at him.

“I mean, you were kind of an asshole in class, so I don't blame Michael for being annoyed with you right now,” Ray said. Michael blinked and smiled at him, clearly impressed.

“Okay, then I apologize,” those were the last words Michael and Ray expected to hear from Gavin, but not wanting to give in so easily, they folded their arms across their chests as they stared hard at him. Gavin put his hands up in front of him in defense and offered them a small a smile. “I'm sorry, Michael, and I _definitely_ think we should start over.”

“You should do more than just apologize,” Ray told him. “Buy us lunch and then we'll talk.”

“Gavin's buying us lunch?” Geoff asked as he walked up to them from behind. Michael and Ray were a bit startled by his sudden appearance, but they managed to keep their composure.

Gavin widened his eyes as he shook his head. “Wait, no-” but he was instantly cut off by Michael.

“Yeah, Geoff, he offered. What are you in the mood for today?”

“No, I didn't offer-” again, Gavin was interrupted.

“Chinese sounds good,” Geoff answered with a shrug.

“I could probably go for some of that,” Ray nodded.

“But I-” there was no use in even trying at this point.

“I'm sure Miles would love that, too,” Michael said, blatantly ignoring the way Gavin sputtered.

“Yeah, so hey, Gavin,” Geoff said as he stepped forward and patted Gavin's arm, “Thanks, buddy. You saved us from having to go another day with eating the crap food they serve here.” Gavin was going to protest again, but instead, he turned to glare at Michael. Michael's lips curled up when he noticed.

“Well, I gotta get going to my next class, but I'll see you guys later,” Geoff spoke, already walking away from them. Ray and Michael waved at him until he was out of sight, and by then, they were almost having trouble not smiling.

“Thanks again, Gavin,” Michael faced him, “I really think this whole _staring_ _over_ thing is working out _great_ so far. I'm already liking you!”

Ray let out a laugh and was quickly joined by Michael before they both turned around and headed down the hallway together. And Gavin, well, Gavin rolled his eyes and took his wallet out of his pocket to make sure he had enough for this “lunch”.

 


	3. Three

Michael was biting down on his lower lip to prevent himself from smiling more than he already was. He kept his eyes on Gavin as Gavin made his way into the cafeteria, holding two plastic bags and wearing an irritated look on his face. Nobody else seemed to notice him yet, but oh, it was the best kind of sight.

Once Gavin reached their table, he set the bags down with a huff as he fixated his irritation on Michael. Geoff clapped his hands loudly together once before rubbing them together and looking around at everyone else. He was grinning, just like Miles and Ray now were, and Michael wanted to laugh so badly.

“Lunch is served!” Geoff announced proudly as he started taking the plastic containers out of the bags. Miles helped while Ray just sat there and waited to be handed something.

Gavin sighed and took a seat next to Geoff. “Since we aren't allowed to leave school grounds to get our lunch, I had it delivered.”

Ray let out a laugh, followed by Michael who couldn't resist any longer, and Miles, and they also shook their heads. Geoff raised an eyebrow as he turned his head and stared at Gavin.

“And they just _let_ you do that?”

“Yeah. I had the money so they didn't really care,” Gavin shrugged. “But they also told me not to get used to it.” Now Geoff laughed as he opened up his plate.

Once everyone at the table had food in front of them, they all dug in, except for Gavin who continued to sort of _glare_ at Michael. And Michael knew that, too, though he pretended he didn't notice, because he knew that would only add to Gavin's little annoyance. Maybe it was pushing it too far, especially since Gavin did apologize, _but_ Michael was having too much fun to care.

“Oh, so Geoff,” Miles spoke after swallowing a mouth full of chow mein, “You know that one girl you think is cute but have _no_ idea who she is?” Geoff sighed loudly but nodded. “Yeah, well, okay, I know her name now. It's Griffon.”

It was actually amazing how much Geoff's face lit up in that moment.

“Griffon?” He asked. Miles nodded. “It suits her. A lot.” A crooked grin made its way on his face. “Hmm, she's so pretty.”

Michael smiled at him before looking over at Miles. “How did you find out?”

“Oh, easy! I was walking to my first class this morning and saw her turn around when someone called out 'Griffon',” Miles explained.

Geoff sighed again, but this time, it came out softly. He also started to twirl his plastic fork around his food instead of eating it. “Now I just hope she isn't a senior, because then I'll never see her again after this school year.”

Gavin's eyebrows squeezed together as he looked from Geoff to everyone else, but they all seemed to be hoping the same thing Geoff was, for Geoff's sake.

“So, why don't you just walk up to her and introduce yourself?” Gavin asked like it was such an obvious thing to do and like he couldn't understand why Geoff hadn't done it yet. That only led to him receiving a raised eyebrow look from Michael, a roll of eyes from Miles, a confused stare from Ray, and a questionable expression from Geoff.

“Gavin, no,” Ray shook his head.

“You're new here, so you probably don't know that doing things like that here isn't exactly easy,” Geoff told him. “Maybe you went to a school where people had guts, but,” he laughed nervously, “No. Not here. At least not me...”

“No, it's not that at all,” Gavin waved his hands. “It's just... well, I've always seen my friend Dan go up to girls without a problem, and even though he was sometimes like you – nervous – it still always worked out for him.”

“Was he hot?” Ray asked casually, receiving himself wide eyed glances from each of them that he added, “It's a serious question.” So they all just shrugged and agreed.

“He's no Geoff,” Gavin started, winking at said person, “but yeah, sure. He's not bad looking.”

Geoff stopped chewing mid through and faced Gavin. He swallowed roughly and wrapped an arm around him. “This asshole just called me hot. Holy shit.” Miles and Ray laughed, and the way Gavin was grinning proudly made Michael squint his eyes, frowning.

“Well, I mean, that was a known fact already,” he mumbled as he looked down at his food and started eating more.

Geoff turned his attention towards Michael and said, “Damn right it was.” He let go of Gavin and pointed at Michael, “That's why he stays my favorite.”

Miles gasped and jumped in his seat, causing Ray to almost choke on his food out of fear.

“I thought _I_ was your favorite, Geoff,” Miles whined.

“For like a day last week, but I got over it.”

“Nice,” Michael giggled as he stood up. He asked if anyone else was done eating so he could throw their trash away, but everyone shook their heads. Michael went on his way towards the trashcan as Gavin watched him carefully.

“Actually, I think I am done,” Gavin admitted, getting up slowly. Geoff, Ray, and Miles weren't paying attention to him as they continued to eat, so he just hurried to catch up with Michael.

Michael barely reached the trash can by the time Gavin was by his side, which did catch him slightly off guard, but he didn't show it. “Well, hey there,” he greeted, a bit blandly.

“This makes us even, doesn't it?” Gavin questioned, and he didn't sound all playful or friendly like he had been.

Michael scoffed. “Not with that attitude.”

“Oh, Michael, please,” Gavin almost sounded as whiny as Miles had. He tossed his trash away after Michael and they both began walking back to the table. “You got me to buy, not only you, but everyone lunch.”

“Well, to be fair, Gavin, you didn't _have_ to. I was just messing with you.”

“Okay, but I did it anyway, because I want us to be good with each other.”

Michael crossed his arms. “Why do you care?”

“Wouldn't it be weird if we were in the same group but we don't like each other?”

“So you're buttering me up to avoid awkwardness?”

“I'm not _buttering_ you up. You don't see me kissing your feet, do you?” Gavin wanted to smile at his own statement, but instead, he held his breath as he halted abruptly in his track when Michael did.

“You know, saying shit like that isn't going to help us be friends,” Michael informed him, an angry glint in his eyes.

Gavin pouted. “I'm sorry, Michael. I am. So, _can_ we start over?” He took a step back to allow more space between them before holding out his hand. “Hi, I'm Gavin.”

Michael looked up and down from Gavin's hand to his face before rolling his eyes. “Yeah... uh, we're not doing that 'reintroducing ourselves' crap. Let's just get back to our friends and enjoy the rest of our lunch.”

Gavin slowly put his hand down and shrugged. “Sounds good to me,” and he happily followed Michael with a satisfied grin.

* * *

 

It was the start of indoor hockey in PE and while most of the class seemed ecstatic over this, Michael couldn't be any less enthusiastic as Coach Stevenson began to go over the rules. Gavin was actually listening intently, though from where he was sitting, he could see, from the corner of his eye, how bored Michael appeared, and it was kind of amusing.

“Alright, now teams,” coach went on, looking down at his clipboard. “There's going to be six teams, since there's a lot of you in this class, and I want everyone to stand next to their team once I call you to it. Okay?” Everyone nodded. “Alright, starting with team one.”

Michael tuned him out after that and simply tapped his foot as he waited until he heard his own name. Gavin was eventually called up and was on the second team while Michael ended up being one of the last remaining students, because he was on the sixth team.

“Everyone good and in the right place?” Coach asked.

“Yes,” the class mumbled in reply.

“Okay, now, we're going to start our first game today, and how this is going to work is that the team that ends up with the most wins by the end of these two weeks will earn themselves a day off from PE,” now half the class perked up, “The teams going against each other today will be... team one versus four, team two versus six,” Michael practically groaned, because of course he was going against Gavin's team, “and three versus five.”

The entire class hurried to get the equipment they needed before getting to where they needed to be. Thankfully, the gym was large enough for all teams to have enough space between them. Michael and Gavin's teams ended up being in the middle section and to avoid having to run around, Michael volunteered to tend the goal. Gavin, however, stayed on the floor, because Michael as a goalie just made things much more interesting.

Michael took a deep breath as he stood where he needed to be and he clutched the hockey stick as he stared hard and forward. Gavin was standing around with his other teammates, but while they wore serious expressions (like this was some sort of professional game), he smiled as he kept his eyes on Michael. Michael did notice him, but he pretended to not. They were barely starting to get on good terms with each other, so Michael wasn't about to let Gavin already distract him, even though this wasn't a serious game and he hardly cared for it.

Once the games started, Gavin focused his attention on that little ball instead of Michael. He was bumped into more than a few times, but he didn't let that stop him. Michael was also watching that ball intently once it got closer to him, thanks to Gavin and another one of his teammates that weren't letting Michael's teammates have a chance. Gavin was only inches from Michael when he went for it, but because of the force he put into the small ball, it ended up flying upwards and Michael had little to no time to react before the ball made contact with his face. And as soon as it did, everyone gasped, except for Gavin who just stood there with a red face and eyes widened.

“Ow, _fuck_!” Michael shouted as he dropped his stick and raised his hand to cover the spot the ball hit, near his right eye. In all honesty, the pain wasn't too bad, but _still._

The sound of another stick dropping made him open his left eye. Gavin ran up to him, genuine concern on his face.

“Michael, are you okay?” He asked, gently trying to pull Michael's hand away so he could see.

“Oh, come on! We _just_ started, Gavin, and you're already messing up,” a teammate complained.

Coach Stevenson was occupied with watching another pair of teams play against each other, so he had yet to notice what had happened, and knowing that, Michael waved Gavin off.

“Get back to playing before teacher notices,” he said bitterly when Gavin wouldn't back away, but Gavin continued to refuse.

“No, you're hurt. We can't keep playing-”

“Gavin, seriously.”

“Michael, _seriously._ ”

And seeing that concern look wasn't fading from Gavin's face, Michael licked his lips and sighed.

“Look, it's fine,” he said, opening his other eye. “It wasn't a punch to the eye, okay? It was just the little ball. I survived and I'm over it now. It just hurt a little at first because it was bit unexpected and fast,” and to further assure Gavin, Michael smiled and pushed him back gently. “Now fucking get back to playing before I make _your_ eye hurt.”

Gavin smirked and nodded before turning around to pick up to his stick. Michael picked up his own as well. Really, his eye didn't hurt anymore... or rather, it wouldn't have... except... it kept happening. Every single time Gavin was going for the goal, he managed to make the ball bounce up again... and again... _and_ again. Michael had managed to dodge it a few times and would just shake his head at Gavin's squeaks and mumbled apologies, but after getting hit in the face three more times when he didn't duck in time, he was done.

“Someone fucking switch with me,” he said through his gritted teeth as to not get their teacher's attention. A girl, Caroline, agreed to switch and Michael inhaled sharply to calm himself down as he joined everyone in the middle.

Gavin was in the center to start off the first hit and seeing that no one from team six was going up against him, Michael decided to do it. He slammed the hockey stick down next to Gavin's and Gavin smiled sadly at him, especially when he saw the redness on the right side of Michael's face.

“Sorry for hitting you.”

“Hmm, you say sorry a lot, you know?”

“I do a lot of things to be sorry for.”

Michael raised an eyebrow at that and the corners of Gavin's lips rose higher.

“That's not something to be proud of,” Michael told him.

“I'm not,” Gavin chuckled.

Now both of Michael's brows were raised. “I... I just don't get you, and I think that's why I prefer not liking you instead of letting myself like you.”

The expression on Gavin's face softened as he spoke, “I don't think I quite get you either, but maybe it'll keep this friendship interesting.”

“ _If_ this friendship even lasts.”

“It _will_.”

Michael looked over Gavin's face, searching for some sort of answer to the question he was about to ask before actually asking it, “How are you even sure about that?” But Gavin didn't get to respond since someone from one of their teams interrupted.

“Are we going to start playing or are you two just going to keep staring at each other?” They asked. That was definitely someone from Michael's team – he recognized their voice.

“Oh, we're gonna fucking play,” Michael answered without looking at them, because he was occupied with keeping eye contact with Gavin, “And we're gonna win.” Gavin merely waggled his eyebrows and looked down.

Yeah, this certainly was going to be an interesting friendship.

 


	4. Four

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Late update but ahhh, I was bound to get off schedule a little. Next update will hopefully be back on track on Saturday. 
> 
> Also, see if you can spot the reference in this chapter.

And what an interesting friendship it was!

Some days were a little more smooth than others, considering some days Michael and Gavin would go through the day without doing what they did best – secretly challenging each other. Secretly because neither of them would actually say “I challenge you to this,” “I dare you to do that,” or “I bet you wouldn't be able to-”. No, it would go around the lines of “It would be pretty cool if someone could do that.” or exchanged looks that said enough.

One of those particular times occurred during a Saturday spent at Geoff's place. They all came over to enjoy hours of pizza, hot wings, and video games, because what could be better than that? This was Gavin's first time spending time with them outside of school, and he was honestly pretty happy about it.

“Days like these are just excuses for us to be lazy losers who have nothing better to do,” Michael said to him as they followed the others to the game room.

Gavin smirked but said nothing as they stopped in front of a door. Geoff walked in first, then Miles, Ray, Michael, and Gavin entered last. He closed the door behind him and looked around, seeing posters on the walls of different video games and characters. There was a wall unit in the corner filled with video games and DVDs and as Gavin inspected that a little further, he realized that they were all organized in alphabetical order.

“Didn't take you as the type to organize, Geoff,” he joked, turning to face him better.

Geoff stared at him with furrowed eyebrows until he figured out what he was referring to. “Oh, I'm not. That,” he nodded towards the shelves, “was all my dad's doing.”

“That's something I'd probably like to have with my games, but I just... nah,” Ray shook his head. “Too much effort.”

“And everyone knows that anything that needs effort put into it is not a Ray Narvaez Jr. thing to do,” Michael said, smiling crookedly at him.

Ray opened his mouth as if to respond with something funny, but then he just shut it and sighed before smiling.

“Alright, assholes,” Geoff spoke up again, turning away from the game console, “let's stop standing around and start playing. The pizza should be here in thirty minutes.” The others, except Gavin, hurried over to the couch and practically jumped onto it, not caring when their heads almost banged against each other. Geoff handed them each a controller before sitting down as well.

With the four of them sitting there, there was no more room for another person to fit and Gavin was left standing aside with his arms crossed.

“You know there's always the floor,” Michael told him as he got himself comfortable by sprawling across everyone's lap.

Miles smiled up at Gavin. “It's not that bad.”

“You say that because you don't _have_ to sit down there,” Gavin whined.

“Oh, come on, you big baby,” Geoff teased.

Gavin huffed and finally gave in by sitting down on the floor where Michael's legs would be if they weren't across Ray's and Miles' laps. And right after that game loaded up, the moments leading up to the “challenge of the day” grew closer.

They were all merely messing around in the game, occasionally screwing each other over for laughs (but it wasn't laughs for the person getting messed with), and that went on for what felt like a long while. In reality, it must have been just half an hour since they were stopped by the doorbell ringing.

“That means pizza,” Miles whispered excitedly. Him and everyone else pausing their movements on the controller for a moment until Geoff jumped up and ran towards the door.

“I want the first slice!” Michael called, getting onto his feet and running after him.

“Hey, no! First slice is _mine_!” Miles demanded, hurrying behind.

Ray and Gavin remained silent, but they were just as fast as them. That only resulted in them reaching the front door at the same time and running right into it, making a loud _bang!_ against it.

“You _fucking_ fucks!” Geoff shouted, pushing them away from him as best as he could. He turned around, glaring at them, “Do you wanna pay for it? Because I'll gladly let you guys pay.”

“Oh, no, it's okay,” Miles said, waving his hands and taking a step back.

Michael just looked away while Ray cleared his throat and averted his eyes and Gavin smiled and shook his head.

“Well, that's what I thought,” Geoff said. He sighed loudly and turned back to the door to open it. The pizza delivery man had a concerned look upon his face, but he didn't ask or comment on anything as he asked for the money and then handed the boxes to Michael who stepped forward to grab them.

“Have a nice day,” the delivery man said once more.

“Trying to,” Geoff mumbled as he closed the door.

Michael walked into the kitchen and set the boxes down on the counter. That gave him dibs on that first slice, to which he proudly pulled out and took a big bite into while looking at his friends.

“Alright, you got your slice, now move,” Geoff said grumpily as he gently shoved Michael out of the way.

They each grabbed a plate and stacked on as many slices as they figured they could finish before returning to the game room and sitting back down on the couch. Well, Gavin sat back down on the floor, but he was fine with it by now. Geoff quickly put on some comedy movie for background noise because they knew they weren't exactly going to pay attention to it anyway.

“So, Griffon and I smiled at each other yesterday,” Geoff spoke.

“Was it magical?” Miles asked through his full mouth.

“I don't know, but she's pretty.”

Gavin grinned at Geoff before throwing his head back to look up at Michael. “You had a pretty good strategy going on earlier,” and so it began.

Michael raised an eyebrow and swallowed before saying, “Yeah, that's basically how I've always played in that game, so I trust that strategy and that strategy only.”

Gavin looked forward and nodded. “Makes sense,” he bit into his pizza and chewed slowly as he said in a hushed tone, “I think my strategy is flawless.”

Michael lifted the slice up to his mouth for another bite, but he heard that, and he paused to squint his eyes at the back of Gavin's head. Did Gavin mean anything by that or was that just him simply bragging? Michael couldn't really tell, but he finished up his second slice of pizza and set his plate down on the side table next to Miles. He wiped his mouth and waited until he saw Gavin put his plate down, indicating that he was done as well.

“Gav,” he sounded bland.

“Hmm?” Gavin asked, not bothering to face him.

“We should play while these guys continue eating. I'm already bored of this movie.”

“You could have picked a movie to watch, but you just sat down,” Geoff told him, bitterly, but there was also a hint of a different tone in there that said he wasn't truly serious.

Michael flashed him a grin, though it faded when he heard Gavin say, “Alright, let's play.”

That was how Miles found himself in the middle of a tackle.

Michael and Gavin had started playing, both using their own strategy and trying their best to prove that they were doing it better without having to say it, but when Gavin purposely sabotaged what Michael was finishing up in the game, Michael couldn't help himself.

“You... you...” as words failed him from the annoyance beginning to take over, Michael groaned and snarled down at Gavin.

Gavin laughed to himself, but as he looked up and notice that angry expression on Michael's face, he squeaked and jumped up to run out. What he didn't expect was for Michael to be faster than him, because he only made it a few steps away before his wrist was grabbed and he was being yanked back. Miles was seconds from taking his last bite of his last slice when Michael wrapped his arms around Gavin's waist and jumped with him to their left, right on top of Miles.

There was a mixture of a gasp and a loud squeal that came out of Miles before they both landed on him, his plate getting smacked up against his chest.

“Oh, my god! _Please_ get off!” He begged, but Michael and Gavin ignored him.

Gavin was laughing as he tried pushing Michael off him, but Michael held tightly onto his wrists now and yelled at him about how he better never try doing anything stupid like that again.

“ _Geoff_!” Miles cried, because all the squirming Gavin was doing on him was only pushing him further into the couch.

Geoff and Ray were too occupied with laughing at the sight, laughing to the point of tears.

“You motherfucker!” Michael screamed at Gavin's face while Gavin shut his eyes tightly and continued grinning.

“Michael! I didn't do anything!” Gavin tried.

“Didn't do _anything?_ Bullshit!”

“Oh, god!” Miles cried out again.

“You _knew_ what I was doing and you fucked me over on _purpose_!” Michael shouted at Gavin.

“We were doing our own thing, Michael! Why would I waste my time messing with you?” Gavin asked, though he turned his head away when he saw Michael leaning down closer, though he spoke something else, “It's not my fault your way failed!” And then the ruffling from Michael stopped completely.

Since his wrists were still being held onto, Gavin slowly opened his eyes and faced forward to find Michael's face inches from his.

 _Please don't make out_ , Miles thought to himself as he pursed his lips and shook his head.

“Fuck you,” Michael growled before letting go of Gavin and getting up.

Both Miles and Gavin sighed in relief, and that's when Gavin fully realized he was lying on top of him.

“Oh! Sorry, mate,” he said, quickly jumping up.

“No... it's... well, thank you,” Miles breathed out.

For it being his first time hanging out at Geoff's, Gavin surely knew that was an accomplished day.

Another challenge ended up happening a few days after at school during lunch. There was a barbecue sauce bottle on the condiments table for students to use for their barbecue needs and as Michael walked up to that table with Ray and Gavin for ketchup, they saw as one of the cafeteria helpers placed a new barbecue bottle down.

When they walked away, Gavin picked the bottle up.

“I just got the strangest idea,” he said.

“What's that?” Ray asked, standing next to Michael as Michael grabbed the ketchup bottle.

“What if someone chugged this entire thing?” Gavin lifted the bottle up, a sort of excitement in his eyes.

Michael handed the ketchup to Ray and turned to look at Gavin suspiciously. “And what if they did?”

“Well, I would definitely have to pay them, because it would probably take a lot to do this. Barbecue isn't bad, but a whole bottle of it must be terrible.”

Michael licked his lips as he looked back back and forth between Gavin's face and the bottle. “How much would you pay them?”

“I'd say... about fifty? It's all I have on me at the moment,” and judging by the smile on Gavin's face, he was thinking the same thing.

Michael snatched the bottle from his hand and swallowed hard. “Say goodbye to your money, Gavin Free.” And Gavin's jaw dropped open as Michael began to chug down that barbecue sauce like it was no big deal at all.

Although it drew quite an amount of attention and cheers from surrounding students and _did_ entertain Gavin and Ray as well, Gavin _almost_ wished he hadn't said anything at all, because that did mean goodbye to his money.

Then there was also a week later in PE when Michael's team ended up being in first place for most wins in hockey, but Gavin's team was one win behind, and since it was the last day for the sport, they went against each other to see who was most victorious. Who could win that free day of PE?

Michael really wanted that free day. It probably just made him feel more of a lazy fuck, but a day without having to worry about possibly not running the mile or not having to do the endless workouts Coach would sometimes make them do sounded beautiful.

The other teams played against each other as well but their wins didn't even matter – they were just playing for fun. The real action was going between the main teams and it was where Coach was standing, observing closely.

Michael and Gavin were in the middle again, both wearing serious expressions but there was some playfulness to Gavin's.

“May the best team win,” Michael whispered and for only a second, Gavin's lips twitched upwards at the corners.

Then the game started and Gavin was confused as to where the hell that little ball had gone. It was on the ground next to him and then the next minute, it was towards the goal. Gavin furrowed his eyebrows and hurried over to help stop Michael from scoring.

Michael was getting ready to hit when he was pushed forwards and barely managed to catch his balance. When he was standing right up again, he spun around and saw that Gavin was making his way towards the other side with the ball.

“What the- wasn't that...? He's _allowed_ to push me?!” Michael asked, mostly to their teacher, but he was currently paying more attention to his phone. Apparently he wasn't observing _that_ closely.

Michael groaned and ran towards Gavin, not even apologizing when he pushed past his teammates roughly. Gavin stood in place and hit the ball, but Michael stopped it in time, stopped it before their goalie could even think about making his move in stopping it. Gavin gasped and looked up to lock eyes with Michael's.

“Nice one,” he simply said before Michael hit the ball and made it go far down in the other direction.

Gavin grinned to himself as he followed his teammates back down that way. That game was a whole bunch of that – them going back and forth but neither of them making it in time to score. The hour was nearly ending by the time Michael's team managed to score once.

Coach Stevenson eventually blew his whistle, although he wanted them to keep playing to see how much longer they could keep this up, but if they wanted time to dress back into their regular clothes in time, they needed to stop now. And at the sound of that whistle, Michael halted immediately in his tracks, slightly bumping into Gavin in the process. Gavin glanced at him with a smile to which Michael responded to with a roll of his eyes.

“Looks like we have a winner,” Coach spoke, gesturing towards Michael's team and Michael's eyes widened excitedly.

He spun around to face his other teammates as the corners of his lips rose up into a grin.

“We won!” He cheered excitedly and his teammates all began cheering along.

Gavin didn't stop smiling even though he looked towards his team and saw them scowling at Michael's. Michael eventually turned back to him with such a smug look on his face that Gavin felt the need to say something.

“Congrats,” he said, holding out his hand.

Michael scoffed and shook it. “Good game, Gav.”

“I'd hardly call that a _good_ game, but-”

“Shut up and let me brag about winning,” Michael winked at him, letting go of his hand, and then he faced their teacher as their teacher blew his whistle again to get everyone to gather around. Michael didn't even bother to listen what he had to say, because all he was doing was letting the class know who won and what they would be doing next and Michael didn't care.

He only cared that he beat Gavin's team in that sorry excuse for a game and earned himself a free day. That was enough of an accomplishment for the day, meaning no other secret challenge would be made, but that didn't mean that was the end of those completely.

It was a good thing their friends caught a break from the challenges sometimes. Sure they were entertaining and had them laughing until their stomachs hurt, but it was nice to be able to sit back and be entertained by other things that didn't involve Michael and Gavin doing their best to prove themselves better to one another.

But even when there were no challenges, shenanigans still ensued.

* * *

 

About a week before Halloween, Michael suggested they'd all go swimming before it got too cold for that. They packed a few things and headed out to meet up with each other at the public swimming pool. Miles didn't know how to swim and hoped to skip out on this, but like the “good” friend he was, Geoff literally went to his house and dragged him out, saying he didn't need to swim – he could just watch!

“Well, okay, but if you guys _force_ me to swim, I _will_ die,” Miles warned, pointing a finger at Geoff as they got into Mr. Ramsey's car.

“We'll take care of you,” Geoff assured, patting his back.

And that was indeed true, because it wasn't Miles who had to worry.

The whole day was going so well with just the five of them jumping in and out of the pool. They only staying out long enough to sit and enjoy a can of soda or maybe a snack, but other than that, they were mostly in the water.

After a while, Michael was ready to get out for another drink when someone splashed, the water hitting him right in the face. He flinched and shut his eyes as he turned away.

“What the fuck...” he sighed, bringing his hands up to rub his eyes. He blinked a few times and Gavin came into view next to him. “You know, I'm not even surprised it was you.”

Without saying a word, Gavin splashed him again. Michael managed to turn his head away in time, but that only led to some water going into his ear. He took a deep breath and faced him slowly, the look of someone plotting a murder on his face. And just like Gavin, he said nothing as he splashed him back.

“Oi!” Gavin squawked, though he laughed and shook his hair.

Michael laughed as well and splashed him once more before getting up and out of the pool. Gavin took a moment to open his eyes, but when he did, he noticed Michael standing and watching as Ray feed Geoff and Miles grapes. Gavin smirked as he started to slowly make his way up and out, but he made sure not to make too much sounds, but the water dripping off him was hardly helping him. Michael was perfectly distracted with the way Ray was starting to just toss the grapes into their mouths instead of carefully placing them inside, so Michael really didn't hear a thing going on behind him.

Gavin bit down on his lower lip as he wrapped his arms around him and squeezed. Michael jumped and threw his arms up, startled, but looking over his shoulder and seeing Gavin resting his chin on his shoulder, he scoffed. It didn't even take much to loosen the grip of Gavin's arms and pushing him backwards, right back into the water.

Gavin splashed in with a muffled squeal and their friends looked over in time to figure out what had exactly happened.

Miles sat up and laughed while clapping his hands. Geoff smiled and shook his head and Ray turned his body to face Gavin's direction better. When Gavin resurfaced, Ray laughed and tossed a grape at him. The way it bounced off his forehead had them all roaring with laughter and much to Gavin's surprise, Michael held out his hand to him, giggling to himself still. Gavin smiled up at him as he grabbed it, but Michael should have seen what came next.

With one rough tug, Michael found himself in the water with him and suddenly it wasn't so funny anymore. Well, to Gavin it was.

Michael pulled up and shook his head, yet he couldn't bring himself to pretend to be mad. “God damnit. Okay, fair enough.” He looked at Gavin and smiled slightly at how hard Gavin was laughing.

Because they really did have an interesting type of friendship, one that was basically up and down.

* * *

 

On Halloween day, they considered dressing up and going out trick-or-treating for fun, since they hadn't been invited to any of the parties (but being freshmen and a sophomore, they didn't expect to get invited to parties thrown by seniors), but in the end, they merely hung out at Michael's and watched one of the horror movie marathons on TV.

“So, guys, I'm in love,” Geoff announced as commercials came on.

“You are not in love,” Gavin teased, shoving him.

“I could be.”

Michael smiled over at Geoff from where he sat on the sofa, but he frowned when he looked at Gavin. “If Geoff says he's in love, then he's in love.”

Gavin whipped his head around to face Michael and gasped. “He hasn't even _met_ the girl.”

“Shut the fuck up, Gavin.”

Gavin crossed his arms, narrowing his eyes and Michael raised an eyebrow at him.

“Don't take it so seriously, man,” Ray told Gavin, leaning over since Miles was sitting in the middle of them.

As Gavin opened his mouth to respond, the doorbell rung. Michael grabbed the bowl of candy from the coffee table and stood up.

“Gotta attend to the kiddies,” he said, taking a step away, but then he stopped and turned around. “Hey, Gav, come join me.”

“Why?” Gavin asked, a little sense of irritation in his tone.

Michael blinked and placed a hand on his hip. “You could have just said no.”

Gavin practically flew off the couch and joined Michael at his side, mumbling something about how it doesn't take two people to give kids some candy.

“This isn't me asking for help,” Michael replied, even though Gavin hadn't aimed for an answer, “I just want the kids to be able to see something scary.”

Geoff couldn't even try to hold in the water he had just sipped upon hearing that. He spat it out all to save himself from choking as he started laughing. Ray and Miles laughed along, but Gavin huffed.

“ _Michael_ ,” he whined.

Michael grinned at him and grabbed his wrist. “I'm just kidding. Come on.” The two made their way to the front door and were greeted with the usual “trick or treat!” from the kids. Michael began giving them each a small handful of candy while Gavin merely stood there, a bit awkwardly, not understanding the real reason Michael wanted him there.

“Why are you guys not dressed up?” a little boy dressed as Woody from Toy Story asked.

“We are,” Michael answered. He gestured towards himself and Gavin. “We decided to be best friends.”

Gavin pursed his lips to prevent the smile that wanted to show itself so badly.

“So you two are not for real best friends?” another kid asked.

Michael's expression softened as he locked eyes with Gavin and Gavin's urge to smile didn't seem as strong anymore.

“Um, no, we're not,” Michael said, still looking at Gavin instead of the kid he was talking to.

Gavin visibly pouted, but Michael wasn't finished.

“We're better than that.”

Gavin snorted and rolled his eyes. “You're so corny.”

Michael furrowed his eyebrows and the kids giggled.

“That's the last time I admit that you're a good friend of mine,” Michael told him.

“You just admitted it again,” Gavin smiled.

“Oh, fu-uh... I mean... hush your face.”

The kids giggled some more and Michael turned back to them. After telling them to have a happy Halloween, Michael closed the door and slapped Gavin upside the head.

“Now that they're gone, fuck off,” he said.

Gavin shrugged and continued to smile. As they headed back towards the living room, he had to ask, “Why did you want me to come to the door with you?”

“You want the absolute honest truth?” Michael questioned him, looking suspicious as he squinted his eyes.

“Yeah.”

“Well, I needed backup in case I ran out of the candy with that group of kids, because I'm running low here,” Michael lifted up the bowl to show Gavin, and indeed there was barely anything left, “so you were there in case I needed you to run into the kitchen real quick for me and grab a new bag.”

“Oh, and how nice you'd chose me to be your backup instead of somebody else,” there was slight sarcasm in Gavin's voice there, but Michael went along with it.

“Of course,” he smiled sweetly at him that Gavin laughed and shook his head.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We're getting closer to the actual jocks part.


	5. Five

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I finally updated this!! And I feel a bit bad, since this is kind of a filler chapter, since it's kind of just moving things along and basically just shenanigans ! But I promise to update more often and I'll most likely get another chapter out soon since I am now officially on Spring break, so I have time to write!! Anyway, sorry for the long wait. Enjoy the shenanigans of this chapter!

To celebrate their first official day of Winter break, especially after November seemed to have dragged on for longer than it should have, they met up at Geoff's place to properly start their weeks of lazy lounging. It didn't feel any different from their weekends at his place, especially since they were doing the exact same things, yet they couldn't ask for a better way to spend their break. Well, perhaps actually going out to places would be fine, but who liked going outside? Ray certainly didn't.

But by the third day of break, they were already starting a little bored. And yet, there was no effort in trying something different. They lied around the couch again, the TV on and ignored. Michael was sitting up close next to Geoff with Ray on his right, Gavin next to him, and Miles was squeezed at the end, practically on Gavin's lap.

It was on this particular day that Ray finally spoke up to say, “Wow, we're each other's clingy boyfriends.” To which Michael, Gavin, and Miles responded with laughter.

Geoff scoffed and shook his head, “Yeah, keep on dreaming, Ray.”

Ray grinned to himself and averted his eyes. He almost seemed to be debating whether to elaborate on that, although he saw how Geoff was readjusting himself, readying himself to say something.

“Alright, so, New Years...” he started, tilting his head so he could get a better sight of Gavin and Miles on the far side as well, “-You guys want to do anything?”

“What could we even do?” asked Gavin, raising an eyebrow. “We're all fifteen and sixteen here. There's not much we can do.”

“Not with that attitude,” Ray chirped in.

“Says the one who won't even try alcohol,” Michael teased.

“Hey, I've tried it! That's why I'm done with it. It tasted like ass.”

“When the hell was that, exactly? Because I don't remember that at all.”

“It was once when I was a kid. My dad had a glass out on the table, because he was having a few drinks with an old friend... I thought it was apple juice... and I don't wanna talk about it...” Ray finished by looking down at his hands with a quiet sigh.

Michael blinked and looked over at Geoff as the latter began to talk.

“Okay, but you said it tasted like ass... and you would know how that tastes like?” Geoff asked Ray, grinning lopsidedly.

Ray scoffed, raising his head again to meet his eye. “Of course. What else do you think Michael and I did at our sleepovers last year?”

Michael smirked at him. “It was so good that I forgot.”

Ray laughed softly and shrugged. “Hey, but seriously, if you guys are planning on getting drunk for New Years eve, count me out, I guess.”

“No, you have to be there to help us in case we do something stupid,” Gavin told him.

“You guys do stupid stuff all the time and I've never stopped it before.”

“It's different other times, because we're sober. We _know_ we're being stupid, but we won't when we're drunk.”

“And that's going to be my problem?”

Gavin merely pouted at him and since their faces were inches apart, Ray rolled his eyes and grumbled in response, “Fine.” And it was quite comical how quickly Gavin's pout transitioned into a goofy smile.

“Don't worry; we're not going to be a bunch of stupid teenagers who get so drunk that they black out before the fun even begins,” Geoff assured Ray, reaching his hand from behind Michael to pat his shoulder.

Ray took a deep breath. “Something tells me that's exactly what's going to happen.”

And he wasn't wrong... not entirely.

New Years eve did start out like any other night they would spend together, with them hanging around and talking on and on about things that didn't quite matter. Seriously, the only days they weren't tied to the hip was probably Christmas eve and day, because Geoff had to go out of town to see his grandparents, as did Ray with other relatives, and the others just stayed at their own houses with their own families. As soon as Geoff and Ray returned home, though, they were back together like it had been weeks.

So New Years eve really was feeling like any other day and Ray was beginning to think none of them cared to get drunk... especially when Gavin brought up his exciting news. Well, he wasn't going to bring it up, but everyone couldn't help but notice that he was more squirmy than usual. And for a while now, for _weeks,_ he'd been acting strangely and occasionally squirmy. Something like that was not easily ignored. Michael was the one to finally ask about it, because there was only so much he could handle without growing too curious.

“I know I'm not the only one who's wondering this, but Gavin, what the fuck?”

Gavin's eyebrows twitched together as he whipped his head to face Michael. “What?” He squeaked.

“What do you mean ' _what_ '?”

“What do _you_ mean 'what the fuck'?”

“I _mean,_ you've been acting like you have something up your ass and can't stay still. On some days, you're fine like nothing's going on, but today, you're just even more irritating. So, what the fuck?”

“Yeah, I've been kind of wondering about that,” Miles said. “It started around the same time Thanksgiving break did, but like Michael said, some days you would be calm and I would forget about it, but today, dude... relax.”

“Is someone too excited about the new year?” Ray questioned in a sort of baby voice.

Gavin bit down on his lower lip, though the corners of his mouth were rising. “I do have something I've been wanting to tell all of you, but... I wanted to wait until it was official.”

Geoff and Miles gasped.

“Are you seeing someone behind our backs?!” Miles genuinely sounded concerned about this.

“You asshole!” Geoff shouted, grabbing a pillow. “At least _I_ told you about Griffon.”

Michael turned to him. “You say that like you and Griffon are a thing. You still haven't even introduced yourself to her.” But Geoff ignored that and continued shooting daggers at Gavin with his glare.

“No, _no_! It has nothing to do with another person... it's...” Gavin trailed off as he got up from the couch. He even took a few steps away as if to add some suspense to this big reveal. It kind of worked. As he turned around to look at all of them, that smile of his was taking up his entire face. Whatever this was, it truly meant a lot to him.

“I've been looking into trying out for the Soccer team,” he announced, throwing his arms up.

For a moment, his friends merely stared at him, wide eyes and speechless, but as they fully took in what he said, their expressions softened, except for Michael's.

“Holy shit, that's cool,” Ray told him.

“I didn't know you liked Soccer,” Miles said, smiling.

“I'll be your biggest fan,” Geoff stated, sending Gavin a wink.

And Gavin looked like he could hardly contain himself. “I did want to tell you the second I decided, but I didn't want to go around talking about if it didn't end up happening. It's not official yet, still, but I start practicing with the team after break, and we'll see what goes from there.”

Michael squinted his eyes at him, yet he continued his silence.

“So, wait, was this a spur of the moment decision, or... you've been thinking it over for a while, or what?” questioned Miles.

“Well, I have played Soccer back at home with a few of my friends and I've always seemed to enjoy it. Moving here seemed like a great opportunity to go for it,” Gavin answered. Then he sighed. “I don't think I'll ever understand why it's called 'Soccer' here.”

Geoff got to his feet and walked over to him, “I'm happy for you, Gavin. I'm actually looking forward to seeing you play out there.”

“Being your number one fan and all,” Miles elaborated, making Ray laugh.

Gavin's grin had faltered since, but the excitement in his eyes was more than evident. He hadn't even noticed Michael's silence – none of them had, that is, until Gavin turned to him finally and locked eyes with him. Michael, unknowing of what to say, smiled at him and Gavin happily returned it, and that was that. Geoff changed the subject to what they were going to do next – celebrate. Now they had two things to celebrate and they weren't wasting anymore time. His parents were expected to come home sometime after one AM, so they had until then to drink as much as they wanted before heading to sleep.

He headed off to grab their drinks. Ray watched as he returned and drinks were passed around, skipping him. He was already prepared for this long and hopefully interesting night, but for now, he would occupy himself with a Mario Kart match with Miles while Miles was still sober. Although, he was secretly waiting for him to get drunk to the point where he would be driving the opposite direction and falling off cliffs because he didn't know what he was doing wrong.

Michael was content with watching instead of joining them, as was Geoff and Gavin. They were talking amongst themselves as drinks continued to be finished and more and more were passed around. Eventually, Geoff joined the game and even though he was pretty drunk, he managed to stay on the course without falling off. The same was not said for Miles.

Miles... he was having some difficulty.

“Oh my god,” he sighed as he waited for Lakitu to pick him up again, “I can't... I can't... what am I doing wrong?” He asked, sounding genuinely confused. “I'm driving. Why does this keep happening to me?”

Ray snorted a bit, but overall managed to contain his laughter. Geoff, however, let it out, almost tossing his controller aside. Miles was pouting as he continued trying to drive and at some point, he actually manged to stay on the track, yet it was the last lap.

“First place again!” Ray cheered as he crossed the finish line.

Miles threw his hands up in frustration. “Why is there an arrow on my screen?! What's happening?!” The tone in his voice was probably the funniest part; he sounded like a whiny child in need of a nap, but instead, he was a fifteen year old that needed water and a full night's sleep.

“Miles,” Michael giggled. “You're going the wrong way, idiot.”

“ _What_? Why did no one tell me?!”

“I'm pretty sure the arrow was,” Ray told him.

Miles groaned and dropped his controller. As soon as Geoff crossed the finish line at fifth place, Ray declared it was time to take a break, for Miles' sake and Miles quietly thanked him. Ray then got up and went into the kitchen, only to return with a glass of water.

“Here you go, man,” he handed it to Miles who not-so-graciously accepted it.

Miles was moving the glass a little too much in his hand that some of the water spilled over onto his lap, which only caused him and Geoff to laugh as though it was the funniest thing to ever happen.

Ray shook his head and placed his hands on his hip. “Is it midnight yet? I think you two need to go to sleep.”

Ignoring that chaos, Michael turned to look at Gavin better and Gavin smiled crookedly at him, clearly more intoxicated.

“Gav... Gav, I have to ask you somethin',” Michael slurred out, placing a hand on Gavin's shoulder.

“What?” Gavin asked. Jeez, even his accent was more pronounced right now. Michael giggled again, getting Ray's attention.

“If... if you could... save _any_ of us,” Michael made a motion between himself and the other guys with his hand, “from a fire or some shit, who would it be?”

Ray tilted his head, a bit amused by this, and he waited for Gavin to answer, but it was like Gavin was trying so hard to process what had been asked of him. Then Gavin looked up, noticing Ray was staring at him. The way his face lit up was indication that he had his answer, and he leaned closer to Michael to tell him.

“Not Ray.”

Ray gaped at him and Gavin covered his mouth as he laughed. Michael laughed as well.

“I'm gonna put you two to bed if you don't behave,” Ray threatened, despite the fact he had _nothing_ threatening about him.

“ _Ray_!” Michael looked over at him. “Not until we're married, at least!” Now Miles and Geoff were listening.

Ray's eyes widened slightly. “I didn't mean it like that-” but he cut himself off and merely smiled as he saw the way they were all practically squealing. He would only have to deal with all of them for a little longer, considering they were getting so easily drunk and it was no doubt they would pass out soon enough. In the meantime, he sat back down and flipped through channels until something caught his interest. He just didn't feel like sitting there and watching one of those New Years eve countdown shows, no matter how many times Geoff would tell him to put one on.

Ray would simply say, “Geoff, you don't actually want to watch that. You're drunk.” Which would get him to shut up about it for a while, until he would remember, but Ray would just say the same thing again. It was a mini cycle that felt endless.

Somehow, though, even though he had honestly been wide awake, he was the first to go. It happened somewhere between telling Geoff to stop tickling Miles and preventing Michael from tackling Gavin that Ray found himself in the most comfortable spot on the couch. He just lied down for a moment while the others went to get food from the kitchen (he made sure to hide all the alcohol before lying down) and he said he was only going to shut his eyes for a second, but of course a second turned into hours.

When he felt himself waking up, he groaned, as he always did when waking up, until he remembered exactly where he was and the night prior's event. He was up and off that couch so fast, frantically wondering where the hell his friends ended up. And he was just about to call out for Geoff when slight snoring coming from behind him caught his attention. Slowly, he turned around and raised his eyebrows at the sight he was met with.

There, practically curled up into a ball was Michael. He was sleeping soundly on the opposite end of the couch. He'd been there... right next to Ray's feet the entire time, and Ray had only just noticed him. Ray sighed.

“At least I know you're alive,” he mumbled before walking out and around the couch only to find Gavin lying there on the floor. The Brit was lying on his stomach, which kind of made it funnier in some way. Probably since it appeared as though he fell over and just passed out like that.

“Okay, so you're fine, too. Two more to go.” Ray stepped around him and walked ahead upstairs to Geoff's bedroom. Just as he had hoped, Geoff was in there, lying backwards on the bed and Miles was lying on the floor at the foot of the bed.

Ray quietly walked up to the side and leaned over his oldest friend, raising an eyebrow as he thought about how to wake him. Miles slowly opened his eyes and looked up to find Ray standing there, and somehow, he couldn't quite register at first that it was just Ray, so he screamed out once. Ray jumped back as Geoff jumped up in place, both of them equally as startled by Miles' scream.

“Miles, what the heck!” Ray shouted back and Miles widened his eyes.

“Oh... hey, Ray,” he breathed out a laugh, which was quickly followed by a groan. “I don't feel so good.”

“If you throw up on my floor, I'll kill you,” Geoff bitterly told him as he clutched his own head. “I should kill you already for scaring the shit out of me like that.”

“Yeah, me too,” Ray said. “I was coming up with a funny way to wake him up myself.” Geoff glared at him for that but Ray ignored him and continued staring down at Miles.

Miles brought a hand up to his mouth and Geoff snapped at him before pointing at the door. Miles nodded, getting to his feet and hurrying out of there.

“And that's one of the reasons I'll never drink,” Ray commented. Geoff merely sighed and started following him out of the room to meet with the other two downstairs.

Michael was in the process of waking up by they got there. Gavin remained deep in his slumber and Ray and Geoff decided not to be jerks to him for now.

“Morning Michael,” Geoff greeted as he plopped himself down on the couch next to him. Michael let out a noise of protest before resting his head on Geoff's shoulder.

“Got a bad hangover?” asked Ray, quietly so he wouldn't wake Gavin. Michael simply whined in response and Geoff wrapped an arm around him. Ray crouched down next to Gavin to make sure he was actually okay.

“So, what happened last night?” Geoff questioned him.

Ray leaned in closer to Gavin's face and was able to hear his soft breathing. He sighed in relief and jumped back up on his feet. “You don't remember anything?”

“I distantly remember something about Mario Kart.”

“Geoff, Geoff...” Michael spoke softly, bringing his hand to his friend's mouth to cover it. “Shh.” Geoff didn't even attempt to protest except for shaking his head.

The sound of a door opening had Ray looking up at the staircase to find Miles standing there, a defeated expression upon his face.

“I hurt everywhere,” he said, beginning to walk down the steps. “Where are your parents?”

“Probably asleep, but so maybe you should shut up about your hangover,” Ray answered. “Unless... unless we just say you got diarrhea from the food.”

Miles was going to say something to that when he reached the bottom of the stairs and noticed Gavin lying there. He squinted his eyes and pointed at him, “Are we going to leave him there?”

“No, he'll wake up eventually.”

Miles sighed and headed over to join Geoff and Michael on the couch. “Can you believe our break is basically over? We go back to school on Monday. I feel like these days passed by in a blur.”

“My whole year was a blur,” Geoff grumbled behind Michael's hand.

“Well, now it's a new year and we can make sure it's one we don't forget anything about,” Ray told him, giving him a pat on the head.

Michael and Miles both groaned in annoyance and Ray couldn't even try to hold back his laugh.

They spent the rest of that morning trying to cure themselves, although Geoff was a bit of a champ the whole time and Ray was merely amused. Gavin managed to wake up before Geoff's parents did, which seemed like complete luck, but Gavin was in worse shape than Michael or Miles were, so helping him out was... interesting, to say the least.

But as soon as everyone felt _mostly_ better, they decided to head to their own homes. Gavin and Michael walked home together with Gavin basically leaning on Michael until they stood in front of his house. That's when Gavin had to force himself to step away from Michael and use his own balance to walk up to the door.

“I'll see you on Monday,” Michael called out to him. Gavin glanced at him over his shoulder and flashed him a weak smile before walking into his house. Michael headed off, gently rubbing his temples. He despised how badly the previous night was foggy to him. Ray had offered to tell them all in detail of what occurred, well, everything _before_ he fell asleep, but still feeling awful, everyone decided against story time. He only hoped he wasn't forgetting anything important, but really, he highly doubted it. It was only New Years eve anyway. What could have _possibly_ happened?

 


	6. Six

The results of the English final was given back to everyone right as soon as class was over. They were told they could walk out right after they got their test. As soon as Gavin received his, he didn't even bother holding back his little victory cheer on his way out of the classroom, to which Michael and Ray rolled their eyes at.

“Alright, what did you get?” Ray asked, taking his test from Mr. Sorola and stepping away to get closer to his friends.

“A plus,” Gavin boasted, grinning lopsidedly as he held up the paper.

Michael's eyebrows twitched together. He looked down at his own test and sighed. “How the fuck did you better than me?” he asked, clearly holding back bitterness in his tone.

Gavin shrugged. “Just lucky I guess.”

“Bet I can do better than on the next test. I just... I was tired when we took this one. I slacked off a little.”

“You still got an A, Michael.”

“Minus,” Michael finished for him. He raised his eyebrows and shook his head. “I can go for a plus.”

Gavin grinned even more, like he needed to, as he raised his hand and patted his back. “I'm sure you'll get it.”

“Shut up,” Michael swatted his hand away, though there was a hint of a smile on his face.

The three of them headed down the hallway where they knew Geoff was waiting for them and the moment they spotted, they noticed how his attention was directed to a completely different direction. Michael and Ray turned their heads until they found Griffon nearby with her friends, and they exchanged looks before sighing. Gavin didn't notice and just walked right up to Geoff.

“Good morning, Geoffrey,” he greeted, standing right next to him.

Geoff blinked hard and looked over to find them all there, much to his surprise. “Oh... hey! I didn't see you guys coming.”

“Yeah, we know,” Michael mumbled, shaking his head. Geoff merely raised an eyebrow questioningly and Ray smiled at him.

“You make it way too obvious sometimes.”

“What are you talking about?” Geoff asked, crossing his arms and honestly looking offended.

Michael directed his gaze to Gavin and let out a loud, content sigh as he pretended to stare lovingly at him. “Oh, Griffon, you're so amazing,” he said, using his best interpretation of Geoff's voice.

Gavin blinked and tilted his head. “What?”

Michael threw his hands up and faced Geoff again. “Gavin and I just demonstrated your relationship with Griffon.”

“We did?”

Geoff scoffed. “Oh, please. If I wanted to go talk to her and have an actual good conversation with her, I could.”

“Wow, really?” asked Ray. Geoff nodded. “Why waste time telling us when you can go over there right now and show us?”

“Yeah, I... I will,” Geoff said slowly as he scratched his head. He did take a step toward Griffon, but as he went for another, he spun around and attempted to push through his friends. Michael and Ray merely held him back.

“Are you fucking kidding me, Geoff?” Michael asked.

“You can't seriously be thinking about running away now when your opportunity is _right_ there,” Ray told him, nodding towards Griffon.

Geoff swallowed hard and smiled as best as he could. “I'll talk to her.. uh, next week.”

“Next week?” Michael squinted his eyes.

“Next week is gonna turn into next month,” Ray said.

“And next month is gonna turn into next year,” Gavin added as he just stood aside and watched this with amusement.

“And next year is going to turn into _never_ ,” Michael put in.

“So,” Ray stopped holding his friend back and turned him back around, “you take a deep breath, Geoff Ramsey, and you go up to that girl and _properly_ introduce yourself. It's just the first step.”

“Yeah!” Gavin and Michael simultaneously shouted.

Geoff groaned. “This is why _no one_ should be friends with freshmen. You're so annoying.”

“No, we don't count, because you've known for us years, minus Gavin, but he's an exception, I guess,” Ray told him. Gavin smiled and shrugged.

“You… god damn children,” Geoff grumbled under his breath.

“Just talk to her, Geoff. If it doesn't work out, you can kill us.”

Michael gaped at Ray but Ray simply pursed his lips, already regretting saying that. Geoff wanted to further protest, although... he also _did_ want to talk to Griffon. This didn't need to be difficult, but it was. It was _completely_ difficult. What was life without a little risk here and there, though, right? So Geoff did as Ray said; he took a deep breath and started making his way toward Griffon while his friends watched with wide eyes.

Griffon was already parting ways with her friends and as she did so, she was stepping away from them, but the moment she looked forward, she found herself almost running right into Geoff.

“Oh, sorry,” she laughed, placing her hand on her chest. The corners of Geoff's lips rose... and that was it. A smile. One smile. No words.

Griffon quietly stopped laughing and cleared her throat. “Um, well... excuse me,” she said as she walked around him and left.

Michael, Ray, and Gavin huffed. Geoff cursed silently to himself as he practically stomped his way back towards them.

“I couldn't do it,” he said. “She looked me in the eye and I forgot what words were.”

“Hmm, it's too bad that doesn't happen often,” Gavin casually stated, sighing. Michael squinted his eyes at him before bringing his hand up and slapping him on the back of his head. Gavin yelped a bit as he stepped away from Michael, though he didn't question what that was for. He knew damn well.

“ _Anyway_ ,” Geoff rolled his eyes and looked over all of them, “I guess I'll catch you losers at lunch?”

“Yep,” Ray and Michael answered.

“I can't eat lunch with you boys today,” Gavin told them, adjusting his backpack's straps on his shoulders. The three turned their heads to _stare_ at him shockingly.

“Why not?” then asked Michael, his eyebrows pressed together.

“Well, like I told you on New Years eve-” the bell rang, cutting Gavin off, and he merely smiled apologetically at his friends. “I have to get to class, but Michael,” he looked directly at him, “I'll see you in PE later.”

Geoff stuck out his tongue at Gavin and said, “Bye, you suck!” But Gavin only laughed.

“But wait! What did you tell us... on New Years eve...” Michael trailed off, seeing that it was useless when Gavin was already halfway down the hall.

Something about that did seem off, yet Geoff and Ray easily shrugged about it as though it was no big deal, and it probably wasn't. Not like Michael needed to worry anyway. That just meant less time with Gavin and that was great, right? Less time having to listen to the most odd things that somehow managed to find their ways out of that kid's mouth. Less time having to hear the accent that accompanied it... although Michael was pretty used to both of those already... but still.

This was fine.

Which was why, at lunch, after getting his lunch, he smiled his entire way to the table where Ray, Miles, and Geoff were seated. Miles raised an eyebrow up at him.

“Why are you so happy?” He questioned.

“Because we're Gavin _free_. Ha! Get it?” Ray joked.

Geoff blinked, pretending like he was actually trying to process the joke in his mind before letting out a loud and fake laugh. “ _Ha_! _Good_ one!” His sarcastic fueled tone had Ray frowning.

“I tried.”

Miles grabbed a few of his fries and stuffed them in his mouth, “Why are we free of Gavin?”

“Loser has plans or some shit,” Geoff mumbled in response.

“Without me- I mean, us?”

Michael set his tray down and took his seat next to Miles. He nodded at him. “Probably off being bored as fuck without us though.”

“I know! We're amazing,” said Geoff.

Ray looked up from his food and widened his eyes when he noticed the subject of their conversation standing on the other side of the cafeteria. “He doesn't look bored as fuck to me.”

“What are you talking about?” Michael asked. Ray just pointed slightly in Gavin's direction and they all looked over to see him. He wasn't alone. Standing next to him were three other guys; Kdin Jenzen, Kerry Shawcross, and Aaron Marquis.

“Why the fuck is Gavin talking to them? I didn't know he knew them,” Michael said, turning back to look at his friends.

Ray shook his head. “One of them is Aaron Marquis. _Aaron._ _The_ Aaron. This group in my class are always talking about him. He's like a god or some shit.”

Geoff wanted to laugh at that. A _god_? Oh, typical. He held back his laughter to speak, “He's just a sophomore that's a really good soccer player. He's not that big of a deal,” then he saw how Gavin, Kdin, and Kerry were uncontrollably laughing at something Aaron must have said or did, and he glared at them. “I'm funnier,” he muttered under his breath, though no one heard.

“Tell that to Barbara,” Ray said.

“Who?” Michael asked.

“This cute girl in my art class. She's a cheerleader.”

“Hmm, I wouldn't know. The only people I pay attention to here are you, Geoff, Miles, and well, Gavin.”

“You always know how to make me feel special,” Ray smiled fondly, placing his hand on his chest. Michael couldn't even resist smirking at that.

“So, what happened here is that our little Gavin made new friends and didn't have the heart to tell us,” Geoff sounded bitter, and a little offended. He grabbed his milk carton and began opening it, “Like going behind our backs makes it any better.”

Michael raised his eyebrows and blinked a few times. That sentence was ringing some sort of bell in his mind and he tried figuring out why; it just wasn't completely coming back to him. Maybe it was just a bad case of déjà vu. He just had a feeling he heard someone, probably Geoff, say something exactly like that about Gavin already. He looked away slightly to think it over. It was _there._.. at the tip of his tongue, yet nothing was really coming back. Déjà vu seriously had its ways of getting to him sometimes.

He ran his fingers through his hair and glanced at Gavin over his shoulder. Aaron, Kerry, and Kdin were slowly heading out of the cafeteria and Gavin seemed hesitate at first, but in the end, he happily went after them. _What the hell._

Miles looked down at his tray and sighed. “I think I'm gonna go see if the lunch lady will give me extra dessert. Anyone wanna join me?”

“Yep,” Geoff said as he jumped up from his seat, grabbing his tray. “She should, since everyone is done getting their food.”

“Yeah, but now let's just hope there's still some pie leftover.”

Ray smiled at the two as they walked off together back towards the front and when he turned his attention back to Michael, he noticed how Michael was still looking at the cafeteria doors. He wasn't saying anything and his expression was unreadable, but Ray knew what he was thinking anyway.

“Just talk to him later in PE or we can wait to talk to him after school,” he suggested, picking up his carton of milk to take a sip.

Michael finally met his eye. “Why?”

“I've never seen you so bothered by something, so-”

“I'm not bothered. If Gav wants to hang out with those losers, then he can. I-I don't care,” Michael scoffed, grabbing his own carton and drinking from it to avoid having to speak more.

Ray studied him carefully, looking over his face. Michael had an expression that _screamed_ “Leave me alone. I don't want to talk about it anymore.” and if that wasn't enough to make someone listen, he would avoid the topic until the person had no choice but to drop it or be left ignored completely. Ray dropped it, yet he kept mental notes of every time Michael glanced back at the doors, as if hoping Gavin would return – he never did.

So, Michael did consider talking to Gavin about it in PE, but once he got there, he was stopped by the sight of Gavin talking to Kerry. It was probably the first time Michael noticed Kerry was even in their class... then again, he didn't pay much attention to anyone he didn't care for. Michael took a few steps in their direction and stopped. Gavin caught him staring and grinned at him before waving him over. Michael flickered his eyes to Kerry who was also smiling, just not as big as Gavin. He knew turning around and walking to the other side of the gym would be a little melodramatic, but it was exactly what he ended up doing, and he told himself not to look and see what Gavin's reaction was to that, because it was either going to be bad (in which Gavin doesn't care) or the opposite (where Gavin is offended by that and Michael feels like an asshole). He preferred not figuring it out.

And he made sure to avoid the Brit all throughout class, which was fairly easy – much easier than he expected. Mr. Stevenson had them doing various exercises during the hour and Michael simply stayed across the gym, away from where Gavin was with Kerry, because it wasn't like it mattered. None of this mattered. It was just Gavin.

When Coach blew his whistle to stop them from doing jumping jacks and take a short break before moving onto the next thing, Michael bent over to relax. The sweat was dripping down his forehead and landing on his shoes and his face was burning. He understood they weren't doing these exercises outside since it was about to start pouring down, but doing them indoors with everyone's body heat and breath everywhere wasn't any better. A particular laugh caught his ear and he glanced to his left to find Gavin and Kerry finding something _hilarious_ in... whatever the hell one of them said or saw.

Michael wrinkled up his nose and stood fully back up.

But no... he didn't care.

He most certainly did _not_ give a damn.

 


	7. Seven

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> After forever, this is finally updated and will be updated so much more often now that my focus isn't on Dirty and Clean.

From the second school was over and Michael was back in the comfort of his home, he felt on edge. It wasn't really to the point where he was honestly going to explode on someone, but it was enough to want to be left alone. Anytime he heard his phone go off with a new message, he would clear the message from the lockscreen and walk away, not bothering to pay attention to who it had been and what they had said.

Why he was letting something as stupid as Gavin getting new friends put him in such a damper was beyond him. Well, _okay_ , he would admit it – he cared, yes he gave a damn, and he hated himself a little for it, which was probably what was bothering him the most. Of course Gavin was his friend and seeing him suddenly drift away to hang out with other people was upsetting, but Michael just didn't want to let it _be_ upsetting to him. He didn't want to make it seem like a bigger deal than it was. Yet, here he was, doing exactly that.

Planning to talk to Gavin about it during PE hadn't gone the way he thought, because it didn't happen at all, and he practically flew out of the school building before anyone could find him, so that blew his second chance of talking to Gavin. Third time was a charm, though, or at least that's what he always heard. Talking to him was something he had to do, for the sake of their... friendship, and he was willing to do so.

So by the time he was showered and ready to get into bed, he felt more at ease with everything. Tomorrow was his third try and he wasn't going to let it slip through his fingers again. He rolled over onto his side and finally decided to check his phone and smiled at the ridiculous things his friends sent him. Ray's messages were obviously intended on cheering him up without really stating that was his intention and that made them all the more amusing; Michael could see right through them.

And the next morning when he was back on the campus, his mood was better than it had been the day before; he was more at ease with everything, especially after deciding he couldn't be bitter about something he didn't know the whole story about. He wandered straight over to Ray's locker to meet up with him and Ray, having not noticed Michael, jumped at the sight of him once he closed his locker's door. Michael snickered.

“The day I _don't_ bring a spare change of pants, you scare the shit out of me,” Ray grumbled. Michael raised an eyebrow questioningly at him as he smirked.

“You still do that?”

Ray shook his head, “No. I stopped doing that last year- man, shut up,” he furrowed his eyebrows when he saw Michael begin to a little harder. Ray couldn't help but join in the laughter for a moment, though. “Good to see you're better today. I knew those monkey pictures would work.”

“Yeah, they were stupid.”

“Hey, stupid _funny_.”

“That is what you are,” Michael teased, nudging Ray softly before looking down the hall to see if any of their other friends were heading on their way to them. Ray opened his mouth to say something in response to that when he grinned instead and nudged Michael back, way more roughly than Michael had to him. He managed to put Michael off balance to make him stumble slightly to the side and he laughed until Michael was shoving him into the lockers.

Now Michael was laughing as Ray gawked at him. Ray stepped forward to playfully shove Michael in return, but they were interrupted by a groan from Geoff.

“ _Oh_ , are you two being freshmen again?”

Michael and Ray both turned to face Geoff and Michael's eyes widened a little when he noticed Gavin was with him, but he quickly looked at Geoff before Gavin could stare back. Here was that third opportunity of his and suddenly he wasn't even sure what the hell he wanted to say or ask. Did he _really_ need to know? He could always have that talk with Gavin some other time during the day... He dismissed those thoughts from his mind and squinted his eyes at Geoff.

“You're just a sophomore – a _year_ older. _One_ year. Get over yourself,” he mumbled, crossing his arms. Ray nodded.

“Hi, Ray!” Gavin then greeted him, a soft smile gracing his features. He turned his attention to Michael and that smile widened. “Michael.”

Michael finally forced himself to look Gavin in the eyes. “What? Do I not get a 'hi' before my name?”

“Nah.” Michael's brows twitched together and he was going to make a comment about how he didn't care anyway, but he was put at a loss for words when Gavin brought his hand up and ruffled his curly hair. Michael immediately swatted his hand away and glared at him.

Pretending he hadn't just seen that, Ray spoke up, “Uh, do you guys wanna come over to my place after school?” Gavin's face fell and because of it, Michael continued to look at him, wearily this time, instead of immediately answering Ray.

“Oh, I can't today,” Gavin replied solemnly, as if he did feel bad saying no, but what could he do?

Michael cocked his head to the side, his eyes like daggers. “ _Why_? _Why_ can't you?” Gavin's eyebrows shot up near his hairline. If the tone of someone's voice could leave physical wounds, Gavin would have actually been stabbed.

“I'm going to be busy,” he told Michael, much calmer.

“With _what_?” Oh, it seemed Michael wasn't going to even _try_ to play nice. Gavin gaped at him a moment before flailing his arms about.

“I told you guys _already_!” He whined.

“What, you got plans with _Aaron_ or _Kerry_? How about _Kdin_?” Gavin was sputtering now but Michael went on without giving him a chance to fully respond, “Oh, shit, Gav, don't let us stop you from hanging around your new friends. Seriously, I bet they're fucking amazing, right? And we're just, what – yesterday's problem?” Gavin merely pouted at Michael after he was done, neither of them noticing the wide eyes on Ray's and Geoff's face. Michael's nose was scrunched up in annoyance and despite being slightly taller than him, Gavin felt extremely small underneath that cold gaze.

“I'm not replacing you, Michael,” he finally found himself saying and even he wasn't sure why he only said “Michael” instead of “you guys.” Michael's expression softened, realizing how dramatic he probably had just been and he took a step back. Gavin opened his mouth to speak once more, but the bell rang and he decided against it.

“We should get to class,” Ray said, breaking whatever tension was building up. He stood in between the two and grabbed them by an elbow before urging them forward with him.

“Yeah... I'll, uh, see you idiots later,” Geoff drawled out, unsure what else he could say besides that. Michael gave him an apologetic smile, because he really couldn't recall another time he regretted saying something so much; he couldn't even bring himself to look over at Gavin as they walked to class with Ray in the middle.

Yet, he didn't say he was “sorry”, even though his mind kept screaming for him to do so.

 

* * *

 

Perhaps Michael was looking more distracted in class than he usually did, because before he entirely indulged himself in another daydream, a note was placed on his desk. He glanced to his right at Ray who waggled his eyebrows at him. Michael curled his mouth to the side as he rolled his eyes, but he did bring the note closer in front of him to read.

> **Don't feel bad.**

Michael sighed quietly and picked up his pencil to scribble his reply. He checked quickly to make sure Mr. Sorola wasn't looking and handed the note back to Ray.

> _I don't know what you're talking about._
> 
> **You look so miserable right now that you could cry.**
> 
> _Shut up. No I don't._
> 
> **Michael, you keep forgetting who you're talking to. I know you, man, and I know that you care way more for Gavin than you would ever want to admit.**

Michael would have scoffed if he wasn't in class, but since he was, he merely shook his head.

“Anyone have any thoughts on the first chapter?” Michael heard Mr. Sorola ask and though he was going to ignore the question as he had with everything the man had said during the class, his interest was piqued when a certain voice with a British accent answered. Michael looked up at Gavin to give his full attention, the note suddenly being forgotten. 

“I was actually confused about some of the things that happened and was hoping you could clarify for me.”

“Of course. Just tell me what parts exactly,” Mr. Sorola was talking as he reached behind to grab his own copy of the book off the desk. Michael stared back at Gavin and watched the way the Brit spoke animatedly, especially with all of those hand gestures he was making to get his point across. Their teacher was more than amused by that. 

Michael averted his eyes after a while. Okay, he may have blown up a little in Gavin's face, doing the absolute opposite of what he had wanted to do, but that didn't mean he couldn't fix it. 

Therefore, after class was over, he waited outside with Ray until Gavin _finally_ finished grabbing his things and walked out to join them. Gavin smiled at Ray and seemed hesitant to do the same to Michael, so his smile faltered a bit.

“Hey, uh,” Michael started, rubbing his neck nervously. “About earlier-”

“I'm trying out for the soccer team,” Gavin interjected.

“-I didn't mean to... wait, what?” Michael squinted his eyes at him.

“Oh, that's right!” Ray shouted, clapping his hands together excitedly like he had just cracked the code to something he'd been struggling with for months. “Aaron, Kerry, and Kdin are on the team, so that's why you've been talking and hanging around them!”

Gavin's face brightened as he nodded. “Yeah!”

“Wait, _what_?!” Michael asked, glancing back and forth between the two of them.

“Yeah,” Ray answered, “Gav told us he was going to try out for the soccer team.”

“When did he tell us that?”

“On New Years eve!” Gavin jumped in, sounding frustrated.

“You expect me to remember that? I got fucking drunk for the first time.”

“So did I! But I still remember _telling_ you!”

“And I didn't get drunk at all, so I remember that night in perfect detail,” Ray boasted, grinning from ear to ear.

“If you knew, why the fuck didn't you remind me?” Michael shot back. Ray held his hands up in front of him defenselessly, but Michael didn't bother hearing his explanation. He went ahead and asked Gavin, “So, you're actually going to try out? This is seriously something you want to do?” Gavin bit down on his lower lip to prevent his smile from widening even more than it already was.

“Yeah. I've played it a lot with my friend Dan when we were younger and I don't know, I decided to go for it. And maybe...” He scratched the back of his head, “I want to be known here a little bit.”

“You want to be _known_?”

“Well, the only people who really know me here are you two, Geoff, and Miles. That's it. Nobody else really cares to talk to me.”

“Well, why the fuck do you need anybody else?”

“I don't _need_ anybody else; I just don't want to hide in the shadows.”

Ray raised his eyebrow at that as he said, “Hey, I know it sucks not being popular, but it's not the most important thing in the world.” Gavin slumped his shoulders as he sighed deeply.

“I just want to do something that I know is fun,” he told Ray, “and I don't particularly want to be popular-”

“Then what _do_ you want, exactly?” Michael asked.

“Recognition?”

Michael rolled his eyes and mumbled, “You're so pathetic.” Though he was going to smile to let Gavin know he meant no harm by that, but it was too late.

Gavin felt his mouth fall open and he furrowed his eyebrows. “Well, I don't care what _you_ think,” he snapped. Michael widened his eyes. “You wanted to know what's been going on and now you understand. I've been trying out and practicing with the team, and I've been having fun. There, that's it! That's all you need to know, so I'm through talking to you!” Gavin stormed off before Michael or Ray could even think of something else to say. They both also ignored the stares they were getting from other students standing around.

Ray turned to Michael and could see the devastation already appearing over his face, so he patted his back in a comfort attempt. “Come on, let's just get to our next class,” he said. Michael agreed and they went on their way, but he was silent the whole time there, something Ray definitely wasn't used to.

 

* * *

 

When lunch rolled around, Gavin seemed anything but bothered by what had occurred earlier. It was as if it didn't happen, because he was talking on and on about everything he'd been doing during try-outs and how the coach really seemed to have a liking for him. Although they were all listening, Miles and Geoff were the only ones responding to everything with genuine interest. Knowing Michael was still silently beating himself up over the little argument, Ray decided to remain quiet with him.

“The team is incredible, too,” Gavin continued, “Kdin, Kerry, and Aaron have made it easy for me to feel apart of the team even though it's not official yet. I appreciate their efforts.”

Michael seemed to sink deeper where he was sitting after hearing that and Ray offered him a small smile.

“Okay, but if you do, I'm bringing an air horn,” Miles said to Gavin.

“You do that and I'll shove it down your throat if you get too annoying with it,” Geoff warned, narrowing his eyes at him. Miles merely stuck his tongue at him.

Gavin laughed as he looked at the two and it was the first time since they all got there that Michael realized Gavin was deliberately avoiding making eye contact. Seriously... Gavin didn't even _acknowledge_ when Michael had gotten to the table, and at the thought of that, Michael felt the rest of his appetite pass. A shame, really, since that pizza wasn't tasting so bad.

“I'll be right back, lads,” Gavin then said, getting up with his tray. Michael watched him walk off in the direction of one of the trashcans and before he could hesitate, he jumped up as well and hurried after him.

“Wow, someone seems eager to talk to Gavin alone,” Miles commented. Ray just shrugged when he and Geoff looked to him for some answers.

“Hey, Gavin,” Michael spoke up as soon as he was close enough behind Gavin. Gavin turned around, halting in his tracks. “I didn't mean to be an ass like that. If I'm being honest, I think it's... it's cool that you're gonna try out for a sport, and uh...” he trailed off, failing to find any other way to say what he was wanting to say. Gavin could sense his troubles, because he laughed.

“Michael, it's fine,” he said. “We had a little spat, or I guess more than just a little one, but that's normal for friends, innit?”

“Yeah, but...” Michael sighed and broke into a smile, mirroring Gavin's. “You know what? It fucking _is_ cool that you're doing this; it'll give the rest of us something to do – going to your games and all.”

“That is _if_ I make the team.”

“You will.”

“You haven't even seen me play.”

“You're right. You probably suck,” Michael laughed softly. Gavin grinned, looking down as an attempt to hide it.

“You kind of suck at everything we play in PE,” Michael added teasingly. Gavin snorted as he met his eye again.

“We've played hockey and some basketball, of course I suck. I don't care for those sports,” he remarked.

“I didn't think you'd care for any sport.”

“I don't think of soccer as much of a sport, but more of a hobby I like to do on the side besides other things.”

Michael nodded and was ready to respond to that when he saw someone walking up to them from his peripheral vision. He glanced over to find that it was Aaron and he was rather taken aback by the sophomore's appearance up close, because he certainly appeared to be much older than he was. Aaron's attention was obviously on Gavin, so Michael subconsciously moved aside to give them some sort of privacy if need be. Gavin also noticed and greeted Aaron.

“Hey, Gav,” Aaron said with a smile that practically lit up his entire face. No wonder he had a silly reputation of being a “god”. “I'm just letting you know that the meet up we were supposed to have today was canceled, but definitely do show up same time, same place, tomorrow. There was just some last minute complications, but nothing serious!”

Although there was a quick flash of disappointment across Gavin's face, he nodded and said, “Well, sounds good to me. I'll see you tomorrow, then.” Aaron smiled once more before also smiling over at Michael and Michael easily returned it. At least there were no bad vibes that came from Aaron. With that, the sophomore turned and walked off back to the table he had come from. Michael was going to mention how it sucked that their meet up was canceled, but he was thrown off by Gavin's sudden giddiness.

“Know what that means, boi?!” He asked. Michael shook his head no. “That means I can go over to Ray's today!” _Oh_. It was impossible for Gavin's excitement _not_ to radiate off of him, because Michael felt himself smiling much more than he should have.

 


	8. Eight

Gavin was given the news in person.

Ray was out that day, stuck at home with a furious stomach flu and Geoff stayed in his history class afterward to discuss getting a retake a test, so that left Michael and Gavin alone after their first period. The two were walking together, talking about a few things they might want to do during their Spring break, which didn't seem so far when they really thought about it. It had been a few weeks since Gavin officially told everyone (for the second time) that he was going for the soccer team and it was about that time that he heard the news of whether or not he had made it. Therefore, he was fidgety that particular morning and knowing why, Michael didn't comment on it and instead, he brought up Spring break.

“Hey, you're free to come over _anytime_ during that week if you can't find anything better to do.”

“You're making it sound like hanging out with you is second best.”

“You wouldn't see that way?” Michael asked, an eyebrow raising curiously as he looked at Gavin. Gavin shook his head before returning that gaze with a smile. The corners of Michael's mouth were beginning to rise when they were both forcefully stopped in their tracks by a group of guys running up to them. Michael instantly recognized a few of them, like Aaron, Kerry, Kdin, and even another he was sure was named Chris. Which just left him with the conclusion that the group was the entire soccer team. Michael glanced at Gavin again to find the Brit grinning crookedly as he eagerly awaited for the answer as to why the guys were even there.

“Usually we let coach give the news,” Kerry started.

“But since we actually like you-” Aaron drawled out, evidently joking if that smile on his face was any indication.

“-We decided to come tell you ourselves,” Kdin added. Gavin was already bouncing where he stood.

“Gavin Free, we would love to officially like to welcome you to the team,” that guy – Chris – finished while the rest of the guys clapped and roared excitedly. Michael blinked a few times, a bit taken aback by the whole thing, but he smiled, because he understood just how much that one statement meant to Gavin... even if this did feel ridiculous and over the top.

“ _Michael_!” Gavin squealed, making Michael's name sound even more mispronounced than usual. Michael turned to him and barely managed to keep his balance as Gavin jumped forward and wrapped his arms tightly around him. They really would have both fell backward onto the floor if Michael didn't quickly regain himself. Michael breathed out a laugh, however, and embraced his friend back.

“I knew you would make it,” he whispered before they pulled away. Gavin felt his cheeks warm up a little at that, and he looked away to share his excitement with the team – _his_ team. And wow, that felt amazing.

Michael took a few steps away from the chaos and merely watched in awe as they all congratulated Gavin one by one. Geoff finally wandered out of his classroom in time to see what was going on just a little away. He strolled over and stood next to Michael, a bit baffled by the scene in front of them.

“Oh, god, what's going on?” He asked.

“Gav made the team,” Michael answered, not even able to stop himself from smiling. Gavin must have heard him, because he spun around, wide eyes.

“Oh, shit,” Geoff grinned, locking eyes with him, “Congrats, buddy!” And Gavin didn't hesitate to hug him the same way he had hugged Michael. Geoff's grin immediately faltered as he almost struggled to stay on his feet and Michael laughed, along with the guys.

“Okay, okay, Gavin,” Geoff said, patting the Brit's back before pulling away. “We definitely gotta celebrate this.”

“Yeah, we were actually thinking about throwing a bit of a party for all of our new teammates,” Kerry announced, gesturing toward the rest of the guys who nodded in agreement. “You guys are free to invite anyone you want.”

Michael's face brightened momentarily as he stared at Geoff. Geoff didn't notice or acted like he didn't, so Michael leaned toward him on the side until their arms were brushing, and then he nudged him.

“No,” Geoff quickly grumbled. Ah, so he had noticed Michael's stare and the meaning behind it. Michael dropped the subject before it could really start, though he made a mental note of _possibly_ bringing it up again later.

“A party?” Gavin asked Kerry with his head cocking to the side in curious interest.

“Yep, this Saturday at Aaron's house,” Kerry answered, nodding toward said person mentioned. Aaron blinked.

“When did we decide that?”

“Oh, come on, Aaron; your parents aren't going to be home until Tuesday, so your place is the perfect designated location,” Kdin pointed out as if it he were irritated it wasn't already the most obvious thing. Aaron looked ready to protest that, but he must have realized that, yes, that was true, so he simply shrugged in the end.

“Just try not to break anything,” he whispered.

“I wasn't planning to until now,” Kdin winked at him.

“I'm being _more_ than serious about that.”

“And you think _I_ am?”

Again, there was a look on Aaron's face that told he was going to speak, but as exactly before, realization dawned on him and he smiled. Kdin rolled his eyes, shaking his head. Kerry turned away from both of them.

“So, Saturday?” He asked Gavin, Geoff, and Michael.

 

* * *

 

Saturday it was.

Convincing Miles to go along with them honestly took no convincing at all, since he was a little too for it. Oh, but he tried to pretend he wasn't (“ _A_ p _arty?! Uh, I mean... oh, there's gonna be a party? Cool. Yeah, I'll go._ ”). Ray, however, did need to be persuaded.

“I don't see why I have to go; you guys will be together,” he told them, pushing past them to get into the lunch line. He patted his stomach as he saw what options were up for the day and he sighed. He was still having a bit of trouble with consuming food, but he was doing his best.

“But this is in celebration of me making the team, Ray!” Gavin reminded him, even smiling sweetly. Ray saw that smile and merely raised an eyebrow in response to it.

“Not just _you,_ idiot,” Geoff scolded. Gavin frowned. “Other people made the team, too.”

“Fine,” Gavin sighed. “Ray, you _have_ to come because it's one big celebration!” The corners of Geoff's lips rose at that. Much better.

“If I go, will you stop talking about it now?” Ray asked, particularly to Gavin, but he was looking around at the rest of his friends.

“Yes?” Gavin grinned. Ray's expression softened and he sighed before nodding.

“Okay, I'll go – but!” He held up his finger as Gavin was already doing a little victory cheer, “-but don't expect me to have fun.” Michael made a joke to Ray there about being a downer, yet he took it all back when Saturday came around and they ended up standing aside together while everyone else genuinely had their fun. Ray had _every_ reason to be a downer about parties and Michael now understood.

Besides Gavin, Geoff, and Miles, they literally knew no one, or rather, they didn't know anyone else well enough to want to make small talk.

A crowd of other teenagers Michael wasn't even sure went to their school were dancing around to the _exceedingly_ loud music in the living room. He could hear the soccer team in the kitchen, hollering about and chanting a bunch of nonsense, and he was able to see glimpses of Gavin and Geoff in there. Even though he was also part of the team, Kerry wasn't with the others. Instead, he was walking around with Miles and the many times they past Michael and Ray, Michael concluded that they were discussing all of the things that made him think “Nerds.” Though he couldn't judge completely, considering he liked those things just as much, which was how he met and become friends with Miles without any problems.

“This is why I didn't want to come!” Ray spoke, practically yelling over the music. “I could be sitting at home, comfortable and happy with a controller in my hands!” He brought his hands up and pretended to be holding something for added emphasis. Michael frowned, but he felt the exact same way. They were then both taken by surprise and raised their eyebrows when they saw Kdin wandering toward them.

“I've seen you two just standing around since you got here; come on, join us,” he nodded toward the kitchen. Michael and Ray looked over to find Gavin chugging down some drink they had given him and watched as he set the empty cup down proudly. The rest of the guys, _especially_ Geoff, were cheering wildly.

“So much fun,” Ray grumbled as he leaned in closer to Michael.

Ignoring him, Michael turned his attention to Kdin. “Actually, I think I'm going to go home. I'm tired,” he said. Ray's face lit up, reminding Michael of the many family parties he'd been to where he would merely be sitting there, bored out of his mind, and impatiently waiting for his parents to announce that they were going home.

“Yeah, same here,” Ray quickly said, unable to hide the excitement in his voice, because in this situation, Michael was the parent. “But hey! It was a cool little party,” oh, he was terribly lying – Michael wanted to laugh.

“You guys sure?” Kdin asked. He was squinting his eyes as he glanced back and forth between the two.

“Yeah!” Michael and Ray answered together, and by the looks of guilt on their faces afterward, it was evident they hoped they didn't sound too eager. If they did, Kdin made no reaction to it.

No, the soccer player nodded to them and told them he would see them later before disappearing back into the kitchen. With that, Ray and Michael made their way through the throng of drunk teenagers until they reached the front door and slipped out to ensure no one saw them.

“Well, that went exactly as I thought it would,” said Ray, inhaling the fresh air deeply and letting it out slowly. “Wow, that feels better than being stuck in there with everyone's body heat.”

“I actually thought I would have _some_ fun,” Michael remarked with a shake of his head. Ray set his lips in a straight line as he brought a hand up to pat Michael's back.

“Come on, let's... go over to my place and have some _real_ fun.”

Despite the fact that Michael was sort of in the mood to simply head home, he agreed, because some time at Ray's would honestly bring that mood up to better.

 

* * *

 

When the first soccer game of the season arrived, Geoff, Ray, Miles, and Michael made sure to get there extra early as an attempt to find the best possible seats. They didn't want to be too up front, but also not too far away, so somewhere in the middle seemed to be their best bet, and those seats quickly filled up a little after they arrived. Everyone else had the same mindset as them, apparently.

Miles and Geoff were trying to make sense of how soccer worked by looking at some videos online while Ray and Michael stared out onto the field (notably smaller than the football one, but that maybe had to do with it not having a track around it). On the Monday after the party, nobody asked Ray or Michael where they had gone off to, and it was somewhat annoying. Well, they didn't want to answer any questions about it, because it was nothing dramatic – they just got bored and left, but their friends didn't even care. Of course Kdin could have let them know...

Either way, Ray and Michael undeniably felt as if they were pushed aside since other exciting things were going on (like thoughts of Gavin's first game approaching) all week to focus on them leaving a party. It was selfish to think of themselves (they were more than happy for Gavin), but a little sign that their friends missed them would have been nice...

“I think it's starting,” Miles suddenly said, clapping his hands together. Geoff put his phone back into his pocket and shifted in his seat. Ray asked them what they managed to learn from those stupid videos and Michael was carefully picking out each player as they came out until he finally recognized one of them – _Gavin_ , number 6.

Michael's lips twitched upward at the sight of him in his uniform, something he hadn't seen yet. In truth, he didn't give a shit about soccer. What he knew was just that the ball was to be kicked into nets but anything else that happened in between was foreign to him, so he just clapped when everyone cheered, or when he saw Gavin grin after doing something, because that meant he accomplished something good, right? Really, he was only paying attention to the Brit and whatever teammate of his would high five him as they ran past each other, because he wasn't sure what else to look at.

At one point, Gavin turned around and locked eyes with him for a few seconds and smiled. Michael's eyebrows twitched together, especially when he noticed how Gavin didn't bother to smile over at their other friends.

“Did you see that?” Michael asked Ray in a hushed tone.

“See what?” Ray responded, looking up from his phone. Michael rolled his eyes.

“No, you obviously didn't. Forget it.” Ray looked questioningly at him for a bit before going back to whatever was so interesting on his phone. Michael shrugged it off and went back to watching the game, but every now and so, Gavin would do it again, only to him, and instead of being baffled over a nice gesture, he started smiling in return each time.

The team won, _slightly_ (all thanks to Gavin, too, for making that last goal before it was too late), but that was enough to make the crowd ecstatic. Geoff, Miles, Ray, and Michael stood as they watched their friend get lifted off the ground by his teammates.

“Now that was some shit straight out of a movie,” Geoff joked. “Gavin was the hero. _Gavin._ _Our_ Gavin.”

“As far as I can tell, he's... _good_ ,” Miles added, looking out at the team in awe.

“Yeah,” Michael breathed, his eyes never leaving Gavin, “He is.” Ray furrowed his eyebrows at the sound of Michael's tone and turned to him. He said nothing about it, though.

 

* * *

 

Excitement over Gavin's first game had to be stored away from his mind, because Michael remembered about an essay that was due in English that he hadn't even bothered to start on. He knew he couldn't be the only one winging it at the last minute, but that still didn't help ease the stress building up.

 _Okay, okay, Michael. You know your topic and you've looked it up ten fucking times already for the past hour. You_ know _this. Now just_ write _something._ Michael groaned as he glared at the blank document that was basically taunting him now. Okay, it wasn't one hundred percent blank – he had typed in his name and the date, the class period and also his teacher “Mr. Sorola”, so, that was something, just not what he needed.

The middle part, the part Mr. Sorola gave more shit about was missing. Michael ran his fingers through his hair, causing a few of his curls to stick up in certain directions and he thought idly to himself about getting a haircut sometime soon. Yes, because even thinking about getting a haircut was more fascinating than finishing the essay.

After blinking hard and rubbing his face, Michael exhaled deeply and picked up the paper that had his choice of topic on it with the brief explanation and example underneath. How many times was he going to pick this paper up and act like he was truly making a breakthrough as he nodded while he read?

“Alright, you know what? Just type whatever the fuck you can,” he said and as fast as he could manage, he typed away furiously, almost worried he would end up breaking one of the keys. He was getting somewhere, though. After procrastinating and then taking much too long to begin, he was getting there, and the only time he dared to stop to take a sip of his Mountain Dew or to crack his knuckles.

His eyes squinted back up to read over everything he had, every bullshit thing he could come up, and smiled when it did sound like he put hard thought into it. According to the paper, the essay needed to be _at_ _least_ a page and a half long, so Michael shifted in his seat to find comfort again and continued on for another three hundred words – the conclusion.

His eyelids were becoming heavy and his yawns more frequent, but he was so close to finishing this damn essay that he powered through the urge to give into sleep and typed in the last two sentences. And as soon as that period was inserted at the end, he jumped up in triumphant. While he printed it out, he grabbed his phone to text Ray, but then he saw how it was just over one AM.

“Jesus Christ,” he grumbled, though he texted Ray anyway.

Michael: Guess who just fucking finished the greatest essay ever? Half-assed but I think it's the best one I've ever written.

And his phone was set by his nightstand to charge since he knew Ray was already fast asleep; he wouldn't be receiving a response until the sun was up. The printer made a noise, indicating that it was done and Michael grinned as he sauntered over to it, shutting his laptop off on the way there. He neatly placed the two sheets of paper into his binder and turned toward his bed before running and jumping onto it. In the morning, he couldn't recall falling asleep and was extremely confused as to why his mom was waking him up.

 

* * *

 

Mr. Sorola was a good teacher, Michael wouldn't deny that for a second, but there were times where the man would go _on_ and _on_ about a certain story that related to what he was lecturing about. His stories were pretty nice to listen to, but there were days where Michael just _couldn't_. Staying up late to finish his essay did that to him. He had his elbow resting on his desk and his head resting against his hand while he dozed off every now and so. Luckily, he would catch whenever Mr. Sorola moved on and he would jot down the important stuff in time.

Ray wasn't even trying; he was just blissfully asleep, his head down on his desk and soft breathing coming in and out of him. Michael smirked a little as he heard something that _may_ have been a snore. Gavin was up in front, phone in his lap while he sent messages back and forth with Kerry who was currently in his Algebra class. Mr. Sorola was unaware of all of this, mostly because other students were actually talking with him and asking numerous questions to keep him occupied and distracted from catching the lads sleeping and texting.

“Okay!” Mr. Sorola then said, louder than anything else. Ray jumped straight up in his seat, startled. Michael's eyes went wide open. Gavin yelped and fumbled with his phone until he managed to put it away.

“Class is going to end soon, so, go ahead and _calmly_ place your essay on my desk,” Mr. Sorola told everyone. “Thank you and have a good day,” he smiled at them before walking around the desk to sit down at his chair. Little by little, people started to get up and do as they were told. Michael and Ray stayed seated as they stretched.

“Excited to turn in your _best essay ever_?” Ray joked, a lopsided grin. Michael rolled his eyes as he stood up.

“You fucking bet I am,” he replied. Ray hurried up to follow his friend up there. Gavin was just a bit ahead of them in the line that had formed.

“This baby is my easy A,” Michael bragged, pulling the sheets of paper out and placing a quick kiss on the first page. Gavin looked over just as Michael did that and he laughed. Michael glared at him.

“Aw, Michael,” the Brit cooed.

“Shut up and get going; you're holding up the line.”

Gavin raised his eyebrows and turned back to notice that he was the next one to hand his essay in. He quickly did so and moved out of the way to wait for Ray and Michael. The bell rang as Michael set his essay down and Ray hurried to do the same before following Gavin out of the classroom.

“God damn, I'm so happy I got that over with,” Michael said, sighing in relief as the three of them headed down the crowded hallway.

“I didn't have much trouble at all to write mine,” Gavin stated with a shrug of his shoulder.

“ _I didn't have much trouble at all_ ,” Michael mocked and used his best impression of Gavin's accent to do so. Gavin pouted at him.

“Michael,” he whined. Michael's face brightened as he smiled and Gavin was smiling back when Aaron's voice rang out through the hall, calling Gavin.

Gavin whipped his head in the sophomore's direction. Michael and Ray watched as Aaron waved Gavin over, and at first, they thought Gavin wouldn't go, but the Brit turned to them with an apologetic look. Michael raised an eyebrow at him while Ray folded his arms across his chest.

“I'll see you lads later,” Gavin said cheerily as he started taking steps backward, waiting for his friends to say something to that. Michael merely waved goodbye and Ray gave him a quick thumbs up.

As Gavin spun around and practically sprinted up to where Aaron was standing, Ray and Michael stood still near the wall. It was quite a sight to the two how Aaron and Gavin walked together and were greeted by every other student that they passed, some of them probably not knowing Aaron or Gavin personally.

“Looks like Gavin's already getting that recognition he was looking for,” Ray commented. Michael couldn't help the smirk that formed on his face. Despite the attention the soccer players were getting, there was another loud ruckus that had more attention, and that came from the football team. Michael and Ray looked over their shoulders to find the group of juniors and seniors at the end of the hall, cheering on about something they were watching on one of their phones.

Even though the season was over, they still sported their letterman jackets, as if people were going to forget who they were. Football was evidently _the_ exciting sport for the school and yes, the team was adored because of their winning streak and well, they weren't unattractive. There were many other students surrounding them, the ones who were anxiously awaiting for a new school year to start so that the football games would happen again – they didn't care about soccer, baseball, or the cross country team.

Ray sighed and mumbled to Michael about them getting to their next class, but Michael either didn't hear him or didn't care, because he didn't move an inch.

“Michael, hey,” Ray waved his hand in front of Michael's face and Michael blinked a few times before acknowledging his friend.

“Why is high school always so pumped about football?” He asked suddenly.

Ray stared blankly for a while, taken aback by the question and the fact that it came from Michael. It was just such a random thing. “I don't know, but it's boring,” he answered finally. “Come on, we should-”

“Football means more to this stupid school than anything else,” Michael retorted, giving his own question a better answer than Ray had.

Again, Ray was rendered speechless a few seconds. Was Michael feeling okay? “Uh, yeah... yeah, I guess,” though he was unsure if he should say more or not. Maybe it didn't matter, because all Michael did was smile as he stared at the jocks.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey there!! So, I've said this on tumblr, but I don't think I've talked about it on here. I'm going to be taking a mini break from writing fanfic. I'm going to finish this fanfic first and another, and then I'll be gone for a bit until Winter comes around and the semester is over. So, the fanfic I'm going to write after this one is going to be voted by you. The two options are fanfics that I know will not be too long, which is why I decided it'd be fine to write it after this one, since it won't take me forever to complete. I'm guessing the break will occur sometime toward the end of September/beginning of October. 
> 
> Anyway, the poll for the next fic is [here](http://strawpoll.me/5140042). I'd appreciate the help, because I can't decide which I'd rather write. The one that doesn't win will be the one that gets written once I'm done with my small break. If you have any questions, please leave them down in the comments below or message me on tumblr @mogarsjones. Okay, thank you for reading and I'll update again soon. 
> 
> LOVE YOU!


	9. Nine

Soccer wasn't the ultimate talk of the school (it never really was), but with the wins the team was gathering almost every game, it was beginning to pique some interest throughout the hallways. Most of that talk surrounded Aaron, of course, but Gavin was actually a close second, because he was like the hero the team needed without even realizing it. It wasn't all that much for Gavin to be honestly considered “popular”, but his name was mentioned a lot more than it used to. Although, it was mostly just within the freshmen and sophomore classes. And also enough for Michael, Ray, Miles, and Geoff not to be surprised whenever they were with Gavin and he was momentarily stopped because someone wanted to say something to him every now and then.

“You're like a C-list celebrity,” Ray joked one day as they headed together out of the cafeteria. Gavin laughed in response and bumped shoulders with him.

At games, they all continued to go to any of the ones that were at home, and even started sitting near some of Gavin's other new friends who went to the games to mainly support him as well. They were Meg, Barbara, and Ashley and they were also freshmen who were in different classes with Gavin but were already best friends with each other (having known each other since elementary school and then deciding to be cheerleaders at the start of the year, giving them even more time to hang out when their schedules proved otherwise).

Michael, Geoff, Miles, and Ray didn't quite know them well enough to sit _right_ next to them, but they didn't keep their distance too far either. Ray and Barbara shared a class together, yet that didn't mean they were friends or anything. Their conversations couldn't even pass for real ones (“Hey, do you have a pencil I can borrow?” “Oh, yeah, sure!” “Thanks.” because Ray kept losing his pencils and Barbara was very organized). They were friendly with one another, though, and that's what mattered in the end.

“For someone as clumsy as Gavin, let me tell you, I get a little nervous watching him run at full speed like that with a ball between his feet,” Ashley commented, earning giggles from Meg and Barbara. Michael, overhearing that, smirked and shifted his attention to the ball. Ashley was right; it was slightly nerve-wrecking, but Michael knew Gavin wasn't an honest walking disaster.

Gavin made it near his destination and kicked the ball right into the net from where he had stopped before jumping up for joy as the game ended on time and in the team's favor. The girls sighed in relief. Close to perfectly in sync, everyone sitting rose to cheer. Gavin managed to look up to where his friends were sitting and wave at them until his teammates ran toward him to celebrate in a sweaty huddled circle. Only roars of victory could be heard from them beyond the commotion going on in the stands.

As they would after each game, win or loss, Michael, Geoff, Miles, and Ray went out onto the parking lot and stood away to wait for Gavin and to stand away from everyone else getting into their cars and trying to leave. Away from the the random groups of friends making plans while standing in the middle of the road and causing cars to honk at them to move. Miles stood with his arms crossed, leaning up against the fence. Ray tugged at the sleeves of his hoodie to just give himself something to do. Geoff was on his phone, blissfully unaware of a certain girl walking by in front of them. Michael was tempted to speak up, but he knew Geoff would merely stare in quiet awe, so he stayed quiet and looked around for Gavin to appear. Once the Brit did, Michael shoved his friends to bring their attention to him.

Geoff scowled at him for a moment until he noticed why Michael did that. Miles pushed himself away from the fence as the four of them walked – slowly – around the cars and crowds to reach their friend on the other side. Gavin immediately leaped into Geoff's arms and Miles laughed at the sound Geoff made as some air was knocked out of him.

“Okay, buddy, that's enough,” Geoff begged. Gavin jumped off only to do the same to Miles afterward. Miles was ready for it, though, and opened his arms out wide as Gavin went for it. They spun around a little as Ray stood right next to them and shook his head.

When they were done, Gavin took a step toward Ray but Ray held up his hands to shield himself.

“Just a normal hug will do,” Ray told him. Gavin obliged. “Alright, congrats, man,” Ray patted his back.

And then it was Michael's turn. Gavin pulled out of his hug from Ray and turned to Michael with a grin slowly forming on his face. They both took a step forward and that was it, because other voices began speaking to them.

“Hey, Gav,” it was Meg, but she was accompanied by Barbara and Ashley who waved at everyone else. Ray and Miles nodded at them with a smile. Geoff and Michael had their focus on Gavin and Meg.

“Hi!” Gavin greeted her in return, sounding as cheerful as he looked.

“We were just wondering if you wanna join us and the rest of the team,” Ashley added.

“Yeah, we're planning on getting some pizza and maybe playing some laser tag afterward,” Barbara told him.

“Really?” Gavin asked, raising an eyebrow. “They didn't tell me anything.”

“I was texting Aaron and he said you left the locker room before he got the chance to tell you, and I told him we would come get you ourselves. So, how 'bout it?”

Michael heard Gavin make a small pained noise and looked more at him to find that he was ready to deny the offer but wasn't sure how to say it. Michael rolled his eyes.

“Yeah, he'd love to!” He answered for Gavin. Gavin blinked hard and gaped at him, though he was more baffled than anything else.

“But what about you?” Ashley asked Michael. “We'd love getting to know you guys better, too.” She glanced over at Geoff, Miles, and Ray.

“Uh...” Miles trailed off as he turned to Geoff and Ray for their answers first. Ray shrugged.

“I could go for pizza,” he said.

“Could be fun,” Geoff agreed with a nod. Michael opened his mouth to say the same, but then he caught eye of Ryan Haywood and Jack Pattillo, also known as, the two of only four sophomores who were on the varsity football team, and oh how they were praised for it. Rumor had it that Ryan was on his way to becoming team captain within the next year.

The two were walking out of the field and walking off to the side to reach the sidewalk up front. Michael was too indulged in watching them that he didn't notice the way Gavin was staring eagerly at him. Not until Geoff snapped his fingers in front of his face, bringing his attention back to everyone.

“Well, are you coming with us or not?” Geoff asked him.

“Uh,” Michael sneaked another peek to Ryan and Jack. They were literally not too far from where they were standing; he could easily catch up to them. With that thought, he sighed. “Count me out.”

Gavin's face fell, a deep frown spreading over his features, and Michael pretended not to see that. Geoff, Miles, Ray, and even Barbara (who, bless her heart, hardly knew him) began coming up with things to say in an attempt to get him to reconsider. Michael just smiled at their efforts and urged them away, making up some bullshit excuse about how his parents wanted him home early.

“Your mom doesn't care that much about curfews,” Ray reminded him, squinting his eyes.

“Yeah, well, my dad is starting to,” Michael lied. “Now, go. Have fun,” he directly stared at Gavin to specifically say, “You deserve to.” Gavin smiled faintly and turned away to follow everyone else over to where they were going to meet up with the rest of the soccer team.

Michael remained standing there alone until they were mostly out of sight. He then hurried over to approach the football players who had stopped walking once they reached the sidewalk. Michael figured they were just waiting for their opportunity to cross the street. The closer he got, the more foolish he felt. What the fuck was he doing and why was he still trying to do it?

He could be with his friends and on their way to enjoy some good pizza, but instead he was walking up to strangers because he was getting sudden admiration for them? Yeah, because that wasn't creepy.

“Dumbass,” Michael muttered about himself and turned to leave, but he heard someone ask him something.

“Excuse me?”

He glanced over his shoulder to find Ryan and Jack were now facing him curiously. Michael licked his lips as he searched for something to say now that he was pretty much caught. This could go two ways: he could simply walk away and forget all about it, or try for conversation. He chose the latter.

“Wasn't calling either of you guys a 'dumbass'. I was calling myself that,” he smiled.

“Oh, well... don't do that. I'm sure you're, uh, a nice guy,” Ryan seemed to hesitate to say.

“Yeah, you're right! I'm Michael!” _Seriously, what the_ fuck _am I doing?_ But Michael couldn’t get himself to shut up.

“Uh, hi, Michael... nice to meet you,” Jack told him with a nod and side smile. Michael shifted his eyes to Ryan whose expression had turned stony and Michael felt uncomfortable being the one that expression was for.

“You're friends with Gavin, aren't you?” Ryan suddenly asked him. The relief that washed through Michael was enough to make him sigh audibly. Neither Ryan or Jack questioned it, luckily.

“Yeah, yeah I am,” Michael answered.

“Ah, I _knew_ I recognized you. Gavin seems like a real...” Ryan paused as he looked downward and scratched his head. “ _Interesting_ person.” Yes, “interesting” seemed to fit the case. He smiled at Michael and Michael grinned back at him.

“He's something, alright,” Michael agreed.

“Yeah, well, uh, we're actually heading to a movie right now...” Ryan didn't say it and didn't have to as he turned around to go back to waiting to cross the street.

As the time for that to happen seemed to come, Jack stopped Ryan from crossing by touching his arm. Ryan halted and mumbled a “What?” to Jack. Jack narrowed his eyes at him before looking at Michael.

“Hey, you can come with us if you want,” he offered, to which Ryan raised his eyebrows. Michael was feeling the way Ryan was, though.

 _He_ was being invited? Someone who isn't a jock in anyway possible or involved in anything at school. Someone who is merely a nerd that minds his own business and doesn't stand out within cliques because there's nothing elaborate that can stand out about him. And here he was, being invited out by _Jack Pattillo_. Yeah, Michael couldn't blame Ryan for his shock. He was shocked himself. Jack was a good guy, he'd heard that a lot.

“Um, yeah!” Ryan then spoke up, throwing open his arms. “Come with us. It should be... fun,” his lips twitched up. Michael couldn't tell if he was serious or not – something about his tone sounding a little off – but he accepted anyway. Perhaps Ryan was still just surprised and didn't know how to act around someone he had only just met that was now going to be hanging out with him for the rest of the night.

The three crossed the street together with Michael just sort of lingering behind and listening to the way Jack and Ryan talked to each other.

“You know Caiti, right?” Jack eventually asked Ryan, looking as if he'd been working up the courage to do so. Ryan blinked.

“Caiti... ?”

“Ward.”

Michael's eyes brightened. She was in his history class. “Girl from Australia?” He felt annoying that he was just butting in. At least, that's how it felt. Jack showed no sign of annoyance, though.

“Yeah!” He answered gleefully as he turned to look at Michael better. “You know her?”

“I have a class with her. Never really talked to her, though, but she let me copy her notes once.”

“Ah, yeah. She's...” Jack trailed off as a smile threatened to appear.

Having none of his other friends around, Ryan ended up exchanging a knowing look with Michael before they grinned over at Jack. Jack noticed the two and waved them off, telling them to shut up even when they hadn't said anything... yet.

Around twenty minutes later or so, they reached the cinema to find four other guys there who turned and greeted Jack and Ryan, gesturing them over. Ryan walked up ahead to meet up with them while Jack stayed at Michael's speed to say something to him.

“Don't feel intimidated by any of them.”

Michael snorted. “Takes a lot to intimidate me.”

“Good,” Jack smiled. “Because they'll try, especially Blaine, but just between you and me, Blaine is the softest out of all of us.” He nodded toward the dirty blond haired guy adjusting his jacket. _Blaine_ did have an appeal to him that could possibly make some people want to stay away, but what Jack just informed Michael of still came as no surprise.

“Huh,” Michael sighed.

“Yeah, come on.” After Jack greeted each of his friends, he turned to Michael and introduced everyone to him. Michael thought over awkwardly shaking their hands. They made no effort in shaking his, so he refrained and settled with giving each one a nod.

He met Adam Kovic, Joel Heyman, Adam Ellis (who was nicknamed Gilby to make things a little easier), and _Blaine_ Gibson. Blaine did try gaining up on Michael and Michael looked him in the eyes with a raised eyebrow until Blaine couldn't hold in his laughter any longer because of the obnoxious noises Joel and Gilby were making together to purposely break Blaine.

“I hate you guys,” Blaine said through his laughing fit.

“He says he hates us with a look like _that_ on his face,” Joel remarked, crossing his arms.

“Hmm, try to be more convincing next time, Blaine,” Gilby teased. Blaine stopped his laughing and frowned at them.

Michael realized how much he was smiling while watching those three interact that it took him a while to notice Adam was attempting to get his attention. He turned to the other with an apologetic look.

“Uh, sorry. What?”

“I asked if you're the same Michael that Gavin Free's always talking about.”

Michael cocked his head a little to the side as he stared incredulously at him. “What, he talks about me-” he was cut off by Ryan calling out to all of them because they were next in line to buy their tickets. Adam hurried up to the front, taking his wallet out, and Michael knew he wasn't going to get the answer to the question he didn't finish asking. Gavin _talked_ about him? And a junior talked to Gavin enough to know that Michael was brought up a lot?

“What the fuck...” Michael muttered.

“I mean, it's cool. I can pay for you this time,” he heard Blaine tell him and he looked up to find them staring at him a bit impatiently.

“ _What_?” Michael asked, eyebrows knitting together.

“You're pretty distracted,” Adam stated. “Everything okay?” He wasn't wrong about the distracted part.

“No, I'm okay. And I can pay for my own ticket,” Michael was speaking in mumbles as he reached into his back pocket for the money he was going to use in case he got hungry during the game. He handed the right amount to Blaine and Blaine turned back to put it with the rest before handing it over in exchange for their tickets.

They wandered on inside and made another line for the concession stand. It being night and a weekend where a few new movies were out, the lines were lengthy. Luckily, they had fifteen minutes and the lines weren't moving too slowly. They purchased their popcorn, candy, nachos, and drinks and headed on their way into the theater.

Michael rested his bucket of popcorn in his lap and popped his straw into his drink before sipping on it. The previews started and every now and then, one of them would whisper “We should go see that” whenever something decent came on. Michael idly wondered if he would be invited out with them again or if this was a one time deal.

It was in the middle of the movie when Michael was getting tired of munching on popcorn and was going to set it on the ground next to his feet, but he turned his head and found Blaine eying it. Blaine had only purchased candy and a drink. Michael sighed and passed the bucket to him, much to Blaine's delight.

On their way out of the theater, they chatted loudly over their favorite and least favorite parts. They talked about the actors they had recognized and what other things they had been in. Michael was following them without really knowing where they were headed next. They ended up a burger joint that was fairly empty, aside from the drive-thru. Michael took his phone out as they entered the building.

Ten PM. His parents never minded him being out late as long as it wasn't a school night and he was back before midnight, so he relaxed himself and his stomach let out a small growl. Popcorn and soda wasn't satisfying enough and he was grateful they were getting burgers. Burgers and fries always sounded amazing to him.

They ordered their food and squeezed into a booth, except for Michael. Adam, Jack, and Ryan were on one side while Joel, Gilby, and Blaine sat on the other side. Ryan had told Michael he would grab another seat and sit at the end of the table so he could sit in the booth instead, but Michael didn't care. Blaine was going on about how he was looking forward to going back to playing football. Joel made a face and said he was, too, but he was dreading the long practices in the summer heat, to which the Adams and Ryan groaned as they thought about that.

“Come on, guys; you know you get used to it after a few weeks,” Jack reminded them.

“No, Jack, I don't _think_ so,” Joel said. “You can't really get used to hell.” The others chuckled. Michael forced a smile, though none of what they were talking about was something he could relate to. The only time he exercised was in PE and that was only for less than an hour.

“What about you, Michael?” Blaine asked him. “What do you like to do?”

Michael shrugged. Nothing that exciting, that was for sure. “Uh, I play video games.” And he was quite impressed with how much their faces lit up. Their conversation instantly shifted into that and what each of them liked to play. Michael felt himself at ease now, because he could contribute.

When that topic died down and they had their food, Michael was asked questions about the soccer team, specifically Gavin. Michael shifted in his seat, unsure how to answer anything about Gavin.

“Um, I don't know. He's an idiot,” he responded nonchalantly and they laughed.

“He looks like he thinks he's so high and mighty because he's British,” Joel commented, stuffing his mouth with fries. After swallowing, he cleared his throat and spoke in his best British impression, “Eyoo, I'm Gavin. _Wot_ you doing mates?” Blaine almost choked on a piece of his burger and everyone laughed. Michael, however, just looked around at them.

“Fuck you, Joel,” Blaine said, happy he managed to swallow without dying.

“No, no, let's not joke about Gavin and his accent,” Jack spoke up, calming his friends down from their giggles. “He's nice. I've talked to him a little bit.”

“He's a piece of shit,” Ryan chimed in, running his fingers through his hair. Blaine and Adam snickered.

“Yeah, he _can_ be, but...” Michael paused, looking down at his food, and then he decided not to say anymore about it.

“I'm sorry,” Ryan told him. “He's your friend, we get it, and we _do_ like him.”

“No, I'm not pissed off or anything,” Michael shrugged. “I get it, too. All of my friends are pieces of shit. You're a piece of shit, too. _I'm_ a piece of shit,” he pointed to himself.

“Amen,” Blaine sang. “None of us are that great.”

“Yeah, but if I see that Aaron guy walk by me like he doesn't see me _one more time_ , I'm... gonna do something. Mmm, not sure of what yet, but-”

“Shut up, Adam. You wouldn't do anything.”

“Maybe the soccer players act that way because that sport is stupid and they know it,” Joel suggested. Gilby laughed.

Michael was silent again. There were a few jokes he thought of to make about soccer, but as Gavin came to mind, he didn't have the heart to actually say any of them. It wasn't like Gavin would know... yet, he stayed quiet. It was better that way. He only smiled at whatever joke one of the others made and also put in his two cents whenever he could.

“Michael,” Ryan addressed him and he was slightly worried they were going to ask him more stuff about the Brit. Michael looked up at him and gave him a nod. “I'm glad you came out here with us tonight. You are pretty cool,” he smiled. Without much of his own control, Michael returned that smile, and it grew as the other guys cheered in agreement.

Before he left to head home, they told him they hoped he would hang out with them again, and Michael stood there in awe for a few seconds. But he got his feet to start moving and waved back to them.

At home, he took his phone and saw he had a few new text messages. Weird. He hadn't felt his phone vibrate.

> **Gavin [10:11 PM]:** Ay, boi! Boring here without you :(
> 
> ** Ray [10:25 PM]: ** Why didn't I just go home
> 
> **Geoff [10:27 PM]:** You're coming with us next time, asshole. It doesn't feel right that you're not here. 
> 
> **Miles [10:27 PM]:** Hi, I know they're texting you so I'm sending you a text, too. Hi. 

Michael smirked at Miles' message and typed in a quick response to him. 

> **Michael [11:14 PM]** : Hi Miles. 

He set his phone onto his nightstand and put it to charge. With that taken care of, he sauntered out of his bedroom and into the bathroom. What could have been a night out with his friends and acquaintances ended up being a night out with strangers and... it wasn't terrible. Sure he can admit they got on his nerves when they were beginning to make fun of Gavin, but besides that, he liked them. Though they pretty much acted the same, they did have their own unique traits about themselves and it reminded Michael a lot of his own group, which was most likely the main reason he felt comfortable around them after a while. He wondered how Ray, Geoff, or Miles would like those guys. He left Gavin out since he was sure Gavin already knew and had his opinions about them. Whether they were good or bad, Michael didn't know. Gavin hardly mentioned anyone who wasn't on the soccer team. 

Michael finished cleaning himself up for bed and walked back to his room, shutting the door behind him. He sat down at his desk and pursed his lips as he turned his laptop on. He couldn't believe what he was about to search. He had gotten to know the football players (well, mostly half of them) a decent amount, but he had  _ no _ _ idea _ what they did on the team. He just knew they were on the team and what grades they were in.

Blaine, Gilby, Ryan, and Jack were sophomores that amazed everyone that they scored spots on the varsity team. Joel and Adam were juniors. He was sure, but not for certain, that the rest of the team were seniors with maybe a few others being juniors. 

Michael went right to the school's website, something he never did at home, and went to the sports section. Football's section was the largest and nicest looking one. There were various photos from the previous season and one professional group photo of the entire team that was to go into the yearbook. In that photo, he saw Ryan's uniform was number fourteen, Blaine's was seventeen, Jack's was forty-one, Adam's was forty-four, Joel's was fifty-six, and Gilby was number sixty.

“What the fuck do the numbers mean?” Michael asked himself. He only needed to scroll lower to figure that out. 

And that's what he spent the next half hour doing – looking through the football section on the school website before moving onto google for anymore answers he needed. He was eventually led to YouTube where recorded videos of the school's football team were on the coach's channel and he sat back as he watched through some of them, but never the whole way through. Of course there was much more he had to learn about football and it would not happen overnight, so he paused the current video playing and sighed. He understood it better than he had an hour earlier and from what he saw in those videos, the guys were good at what they did. Really good. 

_ No wonder the school kisses their asses. _

Michael clicked back to the school site and looked over the group photo again. They sure did make being on the team look like the time of their lives. Gavin was the same way with his team. Was it seriously that fantastic? Looks could be deceiving... 

_ Although, _ from what he witnessed tonight while hanging with the football players and thinking back to all of Gavin's stories, Michael could put together that yes, it was fun. In fact, it was  _ very _ nice to be apart of a team. 

Michael rubbed his face with his hands as fatigue started to creep up on him from his endless thoughts. He sort of hating admitting it, but he could now somewhat understand what Gavin had said before – that whole speech about wanting to be known or having recognition, whatever. It sounded stupid at the time. Hanging out with those guys made it sound... less stupid, in a way, because it was  _ still _ stupid. 

He shut his laptop off and walked over to his bed, stopping and standing there to pick up his phone and create an alarm. It started as a joke at first, kind of, but then he titled it and double checked that it was really set before lying down. 

And at five AM, his phone vibrated with a chime while the screen lit up with the words “Time to run!!!” sprawled across it.

 


	10. Ten

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m not going to lie, I have no idea when I’ll update this again. I’ve just been inspired to work on this after discussing High School AUs with Hunter (@barbdunkelman on tumblr). I’ll try not taking too long to update, though, but there is no schedule for this at the moment. I’m also sorry this is super short, but I didn’t have that much for this chapter in the outline lol. I'm also trying to slowly ease myself back into this, so baby steps.

If someone would have reminded Michael that his chest was most likely going to feel heavy as if it was about to collapse and there would be some difficulty breathing, he would have never gotten out of bed that morning to go for a run. But since he had forgotten just how much he despised running, here he was, ready to turn down another street and _nearly_ ready to lie down on someone’s lawn because his entire body was wondering _why_ he was doing such a cruel thing to it. He understood that he just needed to get used to it, but he was tempted to get used to it another time.

And therefore, he began to slow down until he was doing a complete halt and bending over to catch his breath. He shut his eyes for a moment, trying to ignore the slight headache forming. When he opened his eyes again, his eyebrows twitched together at the sight of round wet spots on the cement below. He looked up at the sky to make sure it wasn’t running before realizing that was merely the sweat dripping from his forehead.

“Oh, fuck this, I’m do-” he cut himself off as he started to recognize the street he was in. He knew the houses looked a bit familiar, specifically one a few houses away from the one he had stopped in front of.

This was where Gavin lived.

Of fucking course it was.

Michael straightened himself back up and thought about simply turning around. But then he thought... why was he trying to hide from _Gavin_ of all people? And why was he giving up running so fast? He was tired, ready to pass out for hours, but he could do this. He could keep running. He could make it back to his house through the route he had planned in his mind. He wasn’t going to get any better at this if he stopped now.

Inhaling sharply, Michael continued on.

It was just about to be 7AM. If it weren’t for that bottle of water Gavin had chugged the night before, he would have lied in bed for another ten minutes. His bladder wasn’t letting that be possible. Gavin rolled over and let out a long sigh before swinging his legs over the edge of his bed. He sat up as he stretched his arms up and over his head, and as he stood, he yawned loudly.

Mornings were definitely a challenge for him, but he managed to drag his feet toward the door. As he walked, he idly peeked out his window to see Michael running by. He didn’t think any of it at first, because he didn’t pay too much attention to who exactly it was. However, as he thought it over, his eyes widened and he ran back to the window to get another look.

“Michael,” he breathed.

Michael Jones was actually running… in the morning… like he said he always did. But this was the first time Gavin had actually _seen_ him run. Gavin cocked his head to the side as he continued watching his friend run down the sidewalk until he could no longer see him.

Aside from having to relieve himself, seeing Michael was certainly a help in getting him further awake and alert. Gavin turned away from his window, a smile tugging at his lips as he shook his head.

Michael hadn’t been sure, for a while, if Gavin ever noticed him running past his house every morning after that, but he wondered why he cared. He kept at it, though—the running. Every single morning. His alarm would go off. He would shut it up, roll out of bed, dress into his most comfortable pair of sweats and shoes, any old sweatshirt, and off he would go.

He took note of when it started becoming easier, when he stopped feeling like he couldn’t breathe every time. It only pushed him forward, to continue on with this running and attempting to go further distances.

Running, as Michael surprisingly figured out, was not that bad. Actually, it was relaxing and helped him clear of his mind of anything he was stressing over. He didn’t worry over that damn test that was going to happen the next week, or the assignments Mr. Sorola assigned this time. He didn’t think about the stupid smug smile Gavin would get on his face each time he did something worth praising, or how Gavin would sit annoyingly close to him at lunch because he _missed his little Michael_. Oh, and he definitely didn’t think about that nickname either.

But eventually, toward the end of the semester and the school year, Gavin confessed to noticing Michael run every morning for the past few months, specifically during their week of Spring break.

 “I told you I run,” Michael casually responded, a shrug of a shoulder.

At that, Gavin squinted his eyes. Oh yes, Michael had mentioned that before, but the proof had never been there until recently. Even so, Gavin wasn’t going to argue with him about it. Perhaps Michael had just changed his usual route. Who was he to doubt his good friend?

“Can I join you sometime?” He asked, unable to keep himself from grinning. Michael froze momentarily. Oh god. Running with Gavin. Well, it wouldn’t be so terrible. Maybe it would be nice having some company. Then again, Michael was enjoying the alone time.

And yet, he agreed. Gavin joined him on a run a few mornings later.

They didn’t talk to each other, which was fine, but Gavin did end up begging for a break after a while. Michael easily ignored him as he kept on running despite the fact that Gavin kept constantly calling out to him with a pout on his face.

“Gotta learn to keep up, Gav-” Michael had to stop talking there, because admittedly, he was in need of a small rest as well. He had gotten better at running longer distances, but he was still human, and he still needed a lot more training to do.

Gavin took his break, but he did manage to catch up with Michael once more. A part of him wanted to force Michael to stop for a little, because he could hear the exhausted panting coming from Michael, but he figured it wouldn’t work anyway.

Gavin also couldn’t help but take notice of the way Ryan, Jack, and Blaine would casually _and_ occasionally greet Michael whenever they walked past each other. He couldn’t recall, for the life of him, when the bloody hell they and Michael began talking to each other. He didn’t even think the football players knew Michael _existed_ , no matter how horrible that was to think. This was something he talked over with Ray who admitted to noticing it as well. Unlike Gavin, though, Ray wasn’t contemplating it.

It wasn’t like Michael wasn’t Michael anymore. The curly haired teen was still himself, just with a few differences here and there (such as the new friends—apparently—and the need to exercise), but still Michael nonetheless.

 

 

* * *

 

About one more week left of school and Mr. Sorola had assigned one last book for the year. The man had made sure it was a breeze, though. The class was to read each chapter and write responses after each one. Once they were fully completed, they had to write a short essay about what they thought of the book overall. The responses were to make this essay even easier to write if they wrote them correctly and to their advantage.

Michael was in the middle of finishing up the last chapter when something on his laptop’s screen caught his attention. He slowly set the book down to find a notification from Facebook. He rolled his eyes. Sometimes he didn’t know why he still bothered using the worthless site, but that thought was put aside once he saw it was a friend request from Blaine. His eyebrows rose in interest and he quickly accepted the request before returning to reading the book.

But once again, a notification popped up and he huffed as he set the book down again. This time, it was a message from Blaine.

> **Blaine Gibson [7:44 PM]:** hey Michael. What's up?
> 
> **Michael Jones [7:44 PM]:** just finishing up some reading for my english class. You?
> 
> **Blaine Gibson [7:45 PM]:** sucks. I'm just hanging out at home tonight. But hey, there's something I wanted to ask you. Totally cool if it doesnt like your kind of thing
> 
> **Michael Jones [7:50 PM]:** Well what the fuck is it?

Michael had honestly waited five minutes for Blaine to type out the rest since it would say he was typing for a few seconds, but no other message came through and Michael was growing anxious. He furrowed his eyebrows as he typed in another message.

> **Michael Jones [7:53 PM]:** Seriously. What the fuck is it?
> 
> **Blaine Gibson [7:54 PM]:** I’ve been trying to think of a good way to ask without sounding too excited about it, but well, would you be interested in trying out for the football team? Try outs won’t be until the middle of summer but hey I thought I’d tell you now, just in case you want time to think about it.

For a moment, Michael said nothing. He just stared at the screen, lips parted and an eyebrow raised questioningly. Why the hell would Blaine ask _him_ to try out for the football team? The football team were practically worshipped and that was because every one of its players were _good_. What did _he_ know about football, aside from the bit of information he had googled?

But… that didn’t mean he couldn’t learn.

Even if he sucked, he could get better. Like Blaine said, try outs wouldn’t start until mid-summer. He had time.

And he would use it well.

With a smirk, Michael finally typed back his response.

> **Michael Jones [7:58 PM]:** Yeah! Can’t wait.


End file.
